










































Class r u. 

V ^ 

v 

, r\ r!t 

v • • V. j. 

Rook .V, 

A.V~, 1 

e \ V- 1_ 

\ \ 

CopyrightN 

:? 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 






























. 























. 














































































































































































































































































































ADNA BRADWAY LEONARD 




THE STONE OF HELP 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

OF 


A. 


B. LEONARD, D.D., LL.D, 

Corresponding Secretary Emeritus 


For twenty-four years Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society 
and Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 


INTRODUCTION BY 

BISHOP LUTHER B. WILSON 



THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI 


JBV 2705 

■L 4 5 f\-3 


Copyright, 1915, by 
A, B. LEONARD 


SEP 14 1915 

©CLA411485 

?U> f 

W * 


DEDICATED 

TO THE MEMORY OF MY BELOVED WIFE, 
CAROLINE AMELIA LEONARD, FOR THIRTY- 
EIGHT YEARS A CONSTANT INSPIRATION 
TO MY MINISTRY AND THE CENTER OF 
MY HOME CIRCLE. SHE WENT AWAY 
AUGUST 31, 1899, BUT THE MEMORY OF 
HER LOVING, DEVOTED LIFE REMAINS 
A SWEET INCENSE. “ HER CHILDREN 
ARISE UP AND CALL HER BLESSED; HER 
HUSBAND ALSO, AND HE PRAISETH HER.” 



















































♦ 









/ 




CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

Introduction . n 

Foreword. 

I. Preliminary. iy 

Family History. 

II. Boyhood Years . 20 

A Sad Event. 

III. Call to the Ministry . 23 

Admission to Conference. 

IV. Itinerant Experiences . 26 

A Fortunate Event—The Civil War—The Draft— 
Drafted. 

V. Itinerant Experiences (Continued). 33 

Revivals—Preach the Word—The Assassination. 

VI. Itinerant Experiences (Continued). 40 

The Story—The Kansas Conference. 

VII. Itinerant Experiences (Continued). 46 

A Tragedy—First Church, Leavenworth—A Kansas 
Blizzard—Lost on a Prairie—Appointed Presiding 
Elder—A Dedication. 

VIII. Itinerant Experiences (Continued). 61 

Return to Pittsburgh Conference—Visit to Pacific 
Coast—Transferred to Cincinnati Conference—The 
Woman’s Crusade. 

IX. Itinerant Experiences (Continued). 69 

Walnut Hills Pastorate—A Battle for Life—Grace 
Church, Dayton—The Mount Vernon Ball—A 
Noted Visitor. 

X. Itinerant Experiences (Continued). 77 

Appointed Presiding Elder—A Great Revival—Con¬ 
stitutional Prohibition Campaign—Central Church, 
Springfield—My First General Conference—Ohio 
Prohibition Campaign—Nominated for Governor— 
Attack on Central Church—Conference Fellowship 
—Incidents of the Campaign—Growth of Prohibi¬ 
tion Sentiment—Green Street, Piqua. 

5 














6 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

XI. An Unexpected Event. 95 

My Colleagues. 

XII. First Voyage . 99 

At Sea. 

XIII. Dai Nippon . 101 

Mountains and Valleys—The Hokkaido—The Japan 
Conference. 

XIV. In Japan . 106 

The Japanese People—Japanese Women. 

XV. In Japan (Continued). no 

Shrines and Temples—Temples and Tombs at Nikko 
—Bronze Image of Buddha. 

XVI. Second Visit to Japan . 117 

Organization of the Japan Methodist Church. 

XVII. Korea —1893. 121 

The People—Religions—Family and Social Life— 
Annual Meeting—Political Events. 

XVIII. China —1893. 129 

Peking—North China Conference—To the Great Wall 
—Central China Conference—Foochow Conference 
—Hongkong—Canton. 

XIX. China (Continued). 143 

Fourteen Years Later, 1907 —The Grave of Robert 
Morrison—Up the Coast—Hinghwa City. 

XX. China (Continued). 149 


The China Centenary Conference—Church Unity— 
The Chinese Ministry—Christian Education—Evan¬ 
gelization—Women’s Work—Christian Literature— 
Ancestral Worship—Medical Work—Bible Transla¬ 
tion—Comity and Federation—The Missionary and 
Public Questions—China Central Conference. 


XXI. China (Continued). 159 

Modern China—The Morning Dawn—The Christian 
Press. 

XXII. Foreigners in the Far East . 163 

XXIII. Cuba and Porto Rico —1899. 168 

Illiteracy—Morals—An Open Door—Porto Rico—A 
Second Visit—The Woman’s Home Missionary 
Society. 

XXIV. Mexico and Its People —1904. 175 

Climate—The Government—Romanism in Mexico— 

The Spanish Yoke—Indulgences—Three Great Men 
















CONTENTS 


7 


CHAPTER PAGE 

—The Methodist Episcopal Church in Mexico— 
Mexico City—Puebla—Oaxaca—Pachuca—Orizaba 
— Guanajuato — Queretaro — Leon — El Oro — 

The Future?—South America. 

XXV. Alaska —1905. 191 

Seattle to Nome—Glaciers—White Pass—White Horse 
River—Dawson—Yukon Flats—Arctic Circle—Fair¬ 
banks—N ome—Alaska Agriculture—Climate—In¬ 
habitants—Alaska Methodism—Metlakatla. 

XXVI. Southern Asia —1906. 217 

India—Burma—Malaysia—The Philippines. 

XXVII. The India Mission. 224 

Founded—Bounds Enlarged. 

XXVIII. Visit to Southern Asia—1906-07. 228 

Suez Canal—Red Sea—Ceylon—Reception at Madras 
—The Madras Publishing House. 

XXIX. Visit to Southern Asia (Continued). 233 

Madras to Bareilly — Bangalore — Belgaum — South 
India Conference—Bombay—Bombay Conference— 
Conference Sunday—Nadiad—Ajmere—Delhi. 

XXX. Visit to Southern Asia (Continued). 246 

The India Jubilee—First Day—Second Day—Third 
Day—Fourth Day—Fifth Day. 

XXXI. Visit to Southern Asia (Continued). 251 

The North India Conference—Educational Institu¬ 
tions—First Baptism—Historical Development. 

XXXII. Visit to Southern Asia (Continued). 255 

Five Interesting Places: Naini Tal — Lucknow — Alla¬ 
habad — Cawnpore—Taj Mahal. 


XXXIII. Visit to Southern Asia (Continued). 265 

Three Conferences: Northwest India Conference. More 
Missionaries Needed—Fire-Worship. Central Prov¬ 
inces Conference. A Plague-Stricken City. Bengal 
Conference. A Great Educational Plant—The 
Revival—On the Heights—Up the Mountain. 


XXXIV. Visit to Southern Asia (Continued). 274 

Rangoon, Capital of Burma—The Pagoda—Burmese 
People—Burma Conference—Street Sunday School. 


XXXV. Visit to Southern Asia (Continued). 280 

Malaysia—Federated Malay States—Kuala Lumpur— 
Singapore—Contiguous Islands—The Malaysia Con¬ 
ference—A Sad Bereavement. 













8 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

XXXVI. The Philippine Islands. 288 

Manila—Romanism—Protestantism^—The Conference 
—Among the Provinces—Missionary Bishops— 
Hawaiian Islands—Home Again—America Forever. 

XXXVII. North Africa—1910. 294 

Algiers—Constantine—Visit to a Mosque—Carthage. 

XXXVIII. Europe—1910. 302 

A Sensation—Another Sensation—Through Southern 
Europe—Bulgaria—The Bulgaria Mission Conference. 

XXXIX. Along the Beautiful Danube. 311 

Budapest—Vienna. 

XL. Italy and France. 316 

The Italy Conference—The French Mission—France? 

XLI. Switzerland and Germany. 320 

Methodism in Switzerland—The German Empire— 
South Germany Conference—North Germany Con¬ 
ference—Methodism in Germany. 

XLII. Scandinavia. 326 

Denmark—Copenhagen—The Methodist Episcopal 
Church—Denmark Conference—N orway—Advent 
of Methodism — Norway Conference — Sweden — 
Methodism—Sweden Conference. 

XLIII. The Russian Empire. 335 

Finland—The Methodist Episcopal Church—Finland 
and Saint Petersburg Mission Conference—Helsing¬ 
fors—Saint Petersburg (Petrograd)—Bishop William 
Burt—Personal—The European War. 

XLIV. The World Missionary Conference—1910. 343 

The Supreme Hour—A Mistake Overruled. 

XLV. Conclusion . 347 

General Conference Action—A Final Word. 












LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


Adna Bradway Leonard.Frontispiece * 

Facing Page 

Corresponding Secretaries of the Missionary Society and the 

Board of Foreign Missions. 99 J 

Hall of Aoyama Gakuin . H9v 

Peking University. 129 

Sam Fairfield Memorial Boys’ College, Lucknow, on Campus 
of Reid Christian College. 224 

The Great Buddhist Pagoda, Rangoon, Burma. 274 

Oldham Hall, Anglo-Chinese College, Singapore. 285 

Algiers, North Africa. 296 














INTRODUCTION 


At the General Conference of 1888, held in the city of 
New York, the Rev. A. B. Leonard, Doctor of Divinity, was 
elected as one of the corresponding secretaries of the Mis¬ 
sionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church; and at 
the General Conference of 1912, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 
Dr. Leonard declined reelection as corresponding secretary 
and was honored by a unanimous election as corresponding 
secretary emeritus. Thus it happens that in length of serv¬ 
ice in this great office Dr. Leonard has outrun all of his 
predecessors and associates. 

The measure of an office in respect of responsibility and 
opportunity is not by any means invariably the measure of 
him who occupies it. Indeed, the choice of the church in 
such matters is necessarily somewhat experimental. No 
matter how well qualified for positions previously held one 
may have shown himself, a judgment as to equipment for 
other service does not commonly have finality of conviction; 
and it is altogether probable that when the General Confer¬ 
ence registered its judgment concerning fitness for office 
by the election of Dr. Leonard there was question as to his 
ability to meet the demands of the place. He had succeeded 
in the pastorate and in the presiding eldership. He had 
evidenced his ability as a leader of men; but would he meet 
the requirements of the new office as he had met the 
demands of the places previously occupied? An old writer 
has given sage counsel in the words, “Let not him who 
putteth on the armor boast himself as he who taketh it off.” 
Not only would there be doubt in the minds of the onlookers, 
but there would be questioning also in the heart of him 
11 


12 


INTRODUCTION 


who sets out upon new and difficult tasks. But long ago 
the question mark was taken away; doubt was vanquished, 
and in the mind of the church Dr. Leonard took his place 
with Durbin and Harris, great administrators of great office. 

Let one recall the many-sidedness of the task in such 
office: He must know something of the field, perhaps not 
fully, and yet sufficiently in detail to appreciate the particu¬ 
lar burdens and cares of those who stand as representatives 
of the home church amid the difficulties of fields remote. 
He must know men and be able to supply in his own thinking 
those facts which are not always written down, and which 
yet must be remembered if there is to be a well-balanced 
judgment. 

As to the missionary and the success of his mission there 
must be a knowledge of world-movement, of expediency in 
spiritual campaign, of holy strategy, a knowledge of those 
values which in the exchange are sensitive to national and 
international conditions, and so are in almost constant 
fluctuation. He must have knowledge of the church at 
home; must measure not only with discrimination, but also, 
as far as may be, with accuracy the factors of possibility 
and probability, so that in appeal there shall be that inde¬ 
finable element which shall inspire to utmost endeavor, but 
which also shall avoid the paralyzing effect of a call to tasks 
impossible. 

How wise one needs to be How patient! How skillful 
in the holy art of persuasion! What necessity is laid upon 
a great soul ambitious for the Kingdom to wait upon the 
King and seek to know his mind! How difficult it seems 
sometimes to have the tides of holy passion surging in 
persistently. How difficult it is when those tides of holy 
passion surge to speak in tempered word, limiting appeal 
by the careful measurement of discretion. 


INTRODUCTION 


i3 


There were visions in the apostolic times which the 
apostles could not disclose. It is quite possible that even 
unto this present there are such visions—visions radiant, 
glorious, which, however, reveal themselves only sugges¬ 
tively. It would seem almost inevitable that one who carries 
on his shoulders the names of all the world’s tribes—like 
a high priest with a great world commission—though he 
be but a man, if he look at the world’s sin; if he listen to 
its wail; if, driven by conscious need, he shall draw close 
to the King and look upon him, listen to him, there must 
be great hours of quickened sensitiveness, of quickened faith 
—so sacred that one can hardly dare tell the story of it— 
but they witness to themselves in zeal and uttermost 
devotion. 

Dr. Leonard does not show to his readers the place 
where he went apart with the Master; does not point out 
the path to those hills of observation from which he caught 
sight of the world’s poverty and hopelessness; but you know 
that he did climb these hills; you know that he did go apart 
with his Lord, not so much because of anything he has 
written concerning himself, but because of that record of 
long service—unwritten, perhaps, but remembered by all 
who were privileged to know him in the incumbency of the 
missionary secretaryship. 

The story which has been written will be read not only 
for the story’s sake but also for the sake of him who tells 
the story; for the sake of him who through all those long 
years of responsibility and privilege wrought with such 
well-ordered endeavor to bring to pass those great achieve¬ 
ments which adorn the record of the years in which he 
toiled and which inspire the hope of still larger achievement 
by those who come after him. 

Dec. 24, 1914. 


Luther B. Wilson. 









FOREWORD 


The army of Israel was engaged in a great battle 
with the army of the Philistines. In the stress of the 
battle, when the army of Israel was filled with fear and 
the prophet Samuel was offering a lamb as a “burnt offering, 
wholly unto the Lord,” “the Lord thundered with a great 
thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited 
them.” As an expression of gratitude and thanksgiving, 
“Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, 
and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath 
the Lord helped us” (i Sam. 7. 12). The word 
“Ebenezer” means “the stone of help.” By setting up the 
stone Samuel planted a memorial, not only to the fact of 
the Lord’s interposition in the battle at Mizpeh, but also 
to. his constant care during the entire history of Israel to 
that day. In this volume I plant my “Ebenezer”—my 
“stone of help”—as a testimonial to the divine helpfulness 
in my life, for hitherto the Lord hath helped me. 

All my life I have had a peculiar aversion to talking 
about myself, and have made it a rule to eliminate the per¬ 
sonal pronoun “I” in writing, in sermons, and addresses, 
as far as possible, but in an autobiography one’s personality 
must have a large place. 

The volume is divided practically into two parts, the first 
part giving an account of my early life and itinerant experi¬ 
ences as a Methodist preacher, covering fifty-one years, and 
part second of my record as corresponding secretary of the 
Missionary Society and Board of Foreign Missions of the 

15 


i6 


FOREWORD 


Methodist Episcopal Church, covering twenty-four years. 
In the second part it is the purpose of the author to sketch 
the conditions that existed on the foreign field at the time his 
visits were made, and to give some account of the successes 
achieved rather than to write a history of the founding of 
our missions and their development. Missions and Mission¬ 
ary Society, by the Rev. J. M. Reid, D.D., contains a full 
account of the founding of our missions in Africa, South 
America, China, Europe, Southern Asia, Mexico, Japan, 
and Korea, and of their earlier progress, while numerous 
volumes and magazine articles, written by missionaries, give 
full information of their development in later years. The 
author will have accomplished his purpose if he shall succeed 
in giving his readers a somewhat realistic vision of condi¬ 
tions as he saw them, and prospects of speedy and world¬ 
wide success, which are brighter and more inspiring to-day 
than ever before, since the Master said to his followers: 
“Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every 
creature.” 


A. B. Leonard. 


CHAPTER I 


PRELIMINARY 

Many personal friends, ministers and laymen, have 
urged me to write the story of my life, but to me it hardly 
seemed to be worth while. The story is one of special 
interest to myself and family, but whether it will be of 
sufficient interest to the Methodist Episcopal Church and 
to the general public to justify publication is a question I 
have not been able to solve to my own satisfaction. 

However, after much thought and with considerable hesi¬ 
tation I have concluded to attempt the task, with the hope 
that it may prove helpful to those who, like the writer, live 
among the common events of life, and toil, for the most 
part, in obscure places. 

To write an autobiography may seem to be an evidence 
of vanity, but it may also cause a sense of humiliation, 
because of many failures of which the author in this in¬ 
stance is deeply conscious. But it is probable that a life 
story can be better told by the one who has lived it than by 
one who has only looked upon it from without. In what 
follows I shall try to be true to the facts as they have 
transpired, and I solicit charitable consideration by the 
reader. 

Family History 

In my family genealogy there were none of the so-called 
royal or noble blood—no dukes, counts, or lords. The 
glory of my ancestry is in character, not titles or great 

17 


i8 


THE STONE OF HELP 


wealth. Five generations ago my paternal ancestors were 
probably in what is now a Rhine province of Germany, 
and at about the same period my maternal ancestors were 
on the green hills of old Ireland. My paternal and ma¬ 
ternal ancestors emigrated to America during the latter 
half of the eighteenth century, the former settling in Loudon 
County, Virginia, and the latter near Morgantown, in what 
is now West Virginia. About the year 1800 Nicholas 
Leonard moved from Loudon County, Virginia, to the west¬ 
ern reserve in Ohio and settled in a wilderness in Trumble 
County, now Mahoning County, near what is now the 
village of Ellsworth Center, where a farm was cut out of 
a heavy forest and where a family of eleven children was 
born and reared—seven sons and four daughters. At a 
somewhat later period, when my mother was nine years old, 
her father, Solomon Davis, moved from near Morgan¬ 
town, Virginia, to Columbiana County, Ohio. His family 
consisted of five sons and four daughters. 

My father, John Leonard, second son of Nicholas Leon¬ 
ard, was born October 8, 1801, and my mother, Nancy 
Davis, April 8, 1804. They were united in marriage No¬ 
vember 6, 1823. Their first home was a log cabin in the 
oak woods near the northern boundary of Berlin township, 
then Trumble, now Mahoning, County, Ohio. When the 
farm of about fifty acres had been well cleared it was sold 
and the family moved to near the southern boundary of 
the same township, where a second cabin was built and a 
farm of fifty-seven acres was cut out of the beech woods. 
I have heard my father say that in Berlin township, with 
his own ax, for himself and others he cleared one hundred 
acres “smack smooth.” Little wonder that he died at the 
age of fifty-one. In that second cabin I was born, August 
2, 1837. It was indeed a unique structure. I see it now, 


PRELIMINARY 


i9 


made of round logs, as they were felled in the woods. It 
was roofed with clapboards about four feet long and about 
six inches wide, riven of oak, with an iron tool, called a 
“frow,” by my father’s hands. The clapboards rested upon 
poles running lengthwise, sloping upward with the gables 
and held in place by weight poles. There were a door and 
window in each of the sides north and south, and a window 
in the east end, while in the west end there was a great 
brick fireplace and chimney. What fires flamed there on 
winter evenings! There mother cooked our meals in iron 
pots, suspended from a “crane” above the burning logs, 
and baked bread, biscuit, and pies in a tin reflector, which 
stood on the hearth close to the glowing coals; and were 
there ever such loaves, biscuits, and pies as mother baked? 
By the light of the fire on winter evenings she spun thread 
from flax held by distaff of spinning wheel, operated by 
foot and treadle, father meanwhile sitting on the cobbler’s 
bench repairing shoes for the household. That was my 
home, and, best of all, it was a Christian home. In quiet 
hours I often hear the voices of my father and mother 
singing a familiar hymn and the earnest prayers that 
ascended from the family altar to the throne of grace. If 
I were an artist, I could paint it all—the cabin, including 
the knots on the logs, mother at the spinning wheel, father 
on the cobbler’s bench, and the whole family at the family 
altar. How unfortunate the children who grow up in homes 
where they never hear the Scriptures read, hymns sung, or 
prayers offered in family worship! 

The family consisted of father, mother, and seven chil¬ 
dren—five boys and two girls: Mary, Plimpton O., Jesse, 
Absalom Willie, Adna Bradway, Solomon Davis, and Sarah 
Ann. At the age of seventy-seven I am the only surviving 
member. 


CHAPTER II 


BOYHOOD YEARS 

It was my good fortune to be born and bred in the coun¬ 
try and to become thoroughly acquainted with farm life. 
At the age of twenty-one there was no kind of farm ac¬ 
tivity as then carried forward, from the building of a rail 
fence to running of an eight-horse threshing machine, with 
which I was not familiar. 

At the time of my birth, and for several years thereafter, 
the public school system was poorly organized in Ohio, and 
in many neighborhoods only subscription schools were 
available. The first schoolhouse I ever saw was built of 
logs on our farm, only a few rods north of my cabin home. 

A Sad Event 

When in my sixteenth year my father died. The day of 
his departure still remains in my mind as one of deepest 
gloom. It was an event so unexpected that it seemed im¬ 
possible. A few years previous a new house had been built 
on an elevation near the public highway and a twenty-five- 
acre tract had been added by purchase to the farm on its 
northern boundary. The new house, while modest, was 
ample and commodious; the farm was well improved, pro¬ 
ductive, and well stocked with domestic animals. Father 
and mother were in middle life and were looking into the 
future with a reasonable expectation of years of comfort 
and prosperity. Now. suddenly, all was changed. Father 


20 


BOYHOOD YEARS 


21 


having passed away, without making a will, an administra¬ 
tor was appointed. The personal property was sold, and 
later the farm also. The family was scattered and I went 
out to make my way in the world. The two following sum¬ 
mers I worked for a farmer, the first for eight dollars per 
month of twenty-six days, and the second for nine dollars 
per month. Meanwhile an older brother had gone to the 
northern part of Indiana, at that time a vast forest, with 
settlers here and there, living usually in cabins and opening 
up farms. I decided to join him and found my way into 
the “backwoods” of Marshall County, five miles east of 
Plymouth, then a village of a few hundred people, now a 
town of several thousand. There I passed the winter, toil¬ 
ing from dawn to dark in the heavy forest for the munifi¬ 
cent wage of eight dollars per month. 

Spring came, and having become acquainted with a 
family that was going to Illinois, I accepted an invitation 
to accompany them. The journey was made in a covered 
wagon drawn by two horses, sometimes over “corduroy” 
roads to a point in Bureau County, near what is now the 
thriving town of Sheffield. The summer was spent in corn¬ 
fields and harvest fields. In the early autumn of 1855 I 
was attacked by that enemy then supposed to lurk in the 
newly plowed prairie, known as fever and ague. Did 
the reader ever have it? If you have, I need not describe 
it. If you have not—well, “Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis 
folly to be wise.” Plans that had been made to remain for 
at least another year were shattered and I returned to Ohio 
to be nursed by my mother. February 14, 1856, my 
youngest brother, a boy of sixteen, after a brief struggle 
with typhoid pneumonia, died. The blow was stunning. 
Of five brothers he was the only one that had given his 
heart and life to God. About two weeks after his death, 


22 


THE STONE OF HELP 


in a revival held in a small church by the Rev. John Wright 
and the Rev. J. C. High, assisted by “Mother Riley,” an 
evangelist, in the village of Limaville, Stark County, Ohio, 
still used as a house of worship, I was converted. 

My conversion was of the old-fashioned type. Sitting 
in the back part of the church, I was approached by a boy¬ 
hood friend, the late Rev. E. M. Wood, D.D., for many 
years a member of the Pittsburgh Conference, who but 
recently received his immortal crown, who asked me if I did 
not think I ought to seek religion. I promptly answered 
“Yes,” for I was under deep conviction. The next question 
was, “Ought you not to seek religion now?” and I answered, 
“Yes.” He accompanied me to the “mourners’ bench.” 
There followed a period of three days of conscious spiritual 
blindness, and then a new, divine light broke upon my soul. 
Afterward I came upon Charles Wesley’s lines which give 
fitting expression to what I then felt for the first time: 

Long my imprisoned spirit lay, 

Fast bound in sin and nature’s night. 

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray; 

I woke, my dungeon flamed with light. 

My chains fell off, my heart was free; 

I rose, went forth, and followed thee. 


CHAPTER III 


CALL TO THE MINISTRY 

My call to the gospel ministry was distinct and clear 
at the age of about twelve years. It was not a call that 
originated in any human source, for no one, not even my 
good mother, had ever suggested to me that I should enter 
such service; nor was it an idea that had its origin in an 
overwrought imagination. The thought of it was most 
unwelcome and I vainly tried to drive it away. In the dusk 
of an autumn evening, walking along the highway that led 
from the farm upon which I labored to the home of my 
mother, burdened with my call, I came to a bushy-topped 
hickory tree, where I sat down to rest and think. All day 
I had followed a harrow over a rough field, and I was tired 
and depressed. This is the way I talked to myself: “Why 
am I tormented with the feeling that I ought to be a minister 
of the gospel? I have no education except what I have 
obtained in a country school, and even that is very limited. 
I am a poor boy and must earn my own living. It is not 
possible to secure the necessary preparation. This is a boy’s 
whim, and I will have done with it forever.” I arose and 
went on my way, feeling that I had settled one question at 
least—whatever else I might be, I would not be a minister. 

But my conversion unsettled the question that I thought 
had been settled once for all. Indeed, it came up now with 
far greater urgency than in my earlier years. I tried again 
to put it away by making arrangements for secular employ- 

23 


24 


THE STONE OF HELP 


ment, which soon fell to pieces. Then I said, “Lord, if thou 
wilt open the way, I will walk in it.” The way was opened 
and made plain. 

My educational advantages had been very meager, and I 
determined to avail myself of such opportunities as were 
within my reach. I began with a term in a common district 
school, where I went over the ground of former years and 
prepared to enter high school, at Alliance, Ohio. For three 
years I went to school in the summer and taught district 
school in the winter. During this period my summer vaca¬ 
tions were spent not at seaside or mountain resorts but in 
harvest fields, thereby increasing my scant financial re¬ 
sources. 

Admission to Conference 

When I was fairly well prepared to enter college as a 
freshman I was urged by my pastor, the Rev. D. B. Camp¬ 
bell, and presiding elder, the Rev. D. P. Mitchell, to forego 
a college course and apply for admission on trial into the 
Pittsburgh Conference. The Quarterly Conference before 
which I was examined was held at Mount Union, then a 
village, now a part of the thriving town of Alliance, Ohio, 
and the seat of Mount Union-Scio College. The president 
of the college, the Rev. O. N. Hartshorn, and several pro¬ 
fessors were members of the Conference, and all stoutly 
opposed my recommendation. I have a very vivid recollec¬ 
tion of that cold February night when I stood on the church 
doorstep, shivering while my case was under consideration. 
When the vote was taken a majority favored my recommen¬ 
dation. Alliance Circuit then consisted of eight appoint¬ 
ments, and the Mount Union contingent was outvoted. It 
was reported that the main reason urged by Dr. Hartshorn 
and others against my recommendation, was that I should 


CALL TO THE MINISTRY 


25 


by all means take a college course, and that they could not 
vote to recommend a candidate they would not be willing, 
by reason of so limited an educational equipment, to accept 
as junior preacher on Alliance Circuit. Long ago I came 
to the conclusion that President Hartshorn and the pro¬ 
fessors were right, and that it would have been wiser for 
the Quarterly Conference and better for me to have followed 
their advice. I then formed a purpose, which I steadily 
pursued, under great difficulties and embarrassments, 
namely, that some day I would win recognition of Mount 
Union College. As time went on I tried to keep myself 
abreast of the best literature obtainable—scientific, philo¬ 
sophical, and theological. I pursued the Conference course 
of study diligently, but did not stop there. When, in 1878, 
the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle was formed, 
I organized a circle in Grace Church, Dayton, Ohio, of 
which I was then pastor, and my wife and I became mem¬ 
bers. In 1882 we graduated with the first class that came 
out of that institution. On the wall of the room in which 
I write, those diplomas have an honored place. They repre¬ 
sent, in outline at least, four years of hard work, covering 
a college course fairly well. 

In 1881, twenty-one years after I entered the Pittsburgh 
Conference, and when I was presiding elder of the East 
Cincinnati District, Cincinnati Conference, I was graduated 
pro merito and received my A.M. degree. 


CHAPTER IV 

ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 

The Pittsburgh Conference was held in Blairsville, 
Pennsylvania, March 21, i860, under the presidency of 
Bishop E. S. Janes. At that session I was admitted on 
trial with a class of thirteen. At the close of the Confer¬ 
ence, in the list of appointments, was the following: “Marl¬ 
boro, D. B. Campbell, A. B. Leonard.” Brother Campbell 
was in charge and I was junior preacher. I have always 
been thankful for that first year of my ministry. The 
preacher in charge was a wise, fatherly man, and he gave 
me advice that has been helpful through all succeeding 
years. 

A Fortunate Event 

Near the close of the Conference year the most fortu¬ 
nate event of my life transpired—I was united in marriage 
(February 19, 1861) with Miss Caroline Amelia Kiser, and 
God never gave any man a more loving, devoted, and help¬ 
ful wife. As a mother she was intelligent, thoughtful, 
affectionate, and patient. Her portraiture is given in 
Proverbs 31. 10-31. As a pastor’s wife she had few, if 
any, superiors. Although quiet and retiring, she drew 
women, girls, and children to her with the magic of her 
spiritual life, so that she became their confidential adviser 
in matters educational, domestic, social, and religious. She 
had an intuitive knowledge of people and was rarely if ever 
mistaken. She was my safest adviser concerning people of 
doubtful and valuable qualities. Her presence in the con- 

26 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


27 


gregation was my greatest inspiration, and she was my 
most sympathetic and helpful critic. She was the center 
of my home circle, idolized by all. She went away to the 
home above, “the house not made with hands,” August 31, 
1899. As she was crossing the line which separates the 
unseen from the seen she called back to the family group 
that stood at her bedside, “The valley is not dark; Jesus 
lights it!” There were born to us seven children, namely, 
May Ida, Lillian Ada, Eva Amelia, Asbury Osman, Lena 
Ann, Adna Wright, and John Wilbur. Two of these, Eva 
Amelia and John Wilbur, went away when they were 
babes, the former at the age of five months and the latter 
at seven. To complete the genealogical record, there are 
at this writing eight grandchildren—three grandsons, five 
granddaughters, and two great-grandsons. 

My second appointment was Allegheny Circuit, consist¬ 
ing of four country churches, contiguous to Allegheny 
City, Pennsylvania. Whether Hopkins Chapel, Franklin, 
and Nevil Island are still maintained as places of worship 
I do not know, but Jack’s Run many years ago became Bell- 
ville, a thriving suburb of what was Allegheny City, now 
a part of the city of Pittsburgh, where there is a commodi¬ 
ous, modern house of worship, accommodating a strong 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 

The Civil War 

April 11, 1861, Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, 
South Carolina, was fired upon by the Confederate forces, 
which act marked the beginning of the Civil War. Then 
followed the call of President Lincoln for seventy-five thou¬ 
sand volunteers, and on July 21 of the same year the first 
battle was fought at Bull Run. At the close of a Sabbath 
afternoon service at Hopkins Chapel the news was re- 


28 


THE STONE OF HELP 


ceived of the defeat of the Union forces and their retreat 
toward Washington City. Fortunately, the Confederate 
army was so demoralized that it was incapable of pursuing 
its retreating foe, and Washington City was spared the 
humiliation of capture. 

The battle of Antietam, which resulted in the defeat 
and retreat of General Lee’s army across the Potomac into 
Virginia, was fought September 17, 1862. A few days 
later I accompanied a friend to Washington to visit his 
brother, who was found in a hospital camp near Fairfax 
Court House, Virginia, several miles south of the capitol. 
Every available building belonging to the government, in¬ 
cluding the capitol, was converted into a hospital and was 
filled with wounded soldiers from the battlefield of Antie¬ 
tam. One morning I visited the White House grounds and 
had my first and only sight of President Lincoln, who 
spent the summer nights at the Soldiers’ Home, some three 
or four miles distant. I happened to be near the front 
entrance when a carriage was driven up, guarded by a 
squad of cavalry, from which the President emerged and 
quickly passed into the door. There remains with me a 
vivid memory of his appearance—tall gaunt, and bent, with 
the saddest face I have ever seen. 

I remained on Allegheny Circuit for two years, the limit 
of pastoral service at that period, and was assigned, March, 
1863, to Butler Circuit, twenty-five miles north of Alle¬ 
gheny City. 

These were the darkest days of the Civil War. January 
1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued as a 
war measure, setting free four million slaves. Carpenter’s 
Six Months at the White House says that Secretary of 
State Seward took the immortal document to the White 
House and spread it upon the President’s desk, who picked 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


29 


up the pen specially provided for the memorable occasion, 
moved it to the place where his name was to be inscribed, 
and laid it down. He picked it up and laid it down a second 
time. Mr. Seward, who was watching the President's 
movements with special interest, said, “Mr. President, why 
do you falter ?" Mr. Lincoln said: “I have been shaking 
hands with the people all the forenoon and my hand is 
nearly paralyzed. If my name goes into history, it will be 
in connection with this act and my whole soul is in it. If 
my hand trembles, they will say, ‘He hesitated.' ” Taking 
up the pen the third time, he wrote his name in a bold, 
steady hand. 

My boyhood home was in a Quaker neighborhood, near 
Salem, Columbiana County, now Mahoning County, Ohio, 
in antebellum days a well-known station on the “under¬ 
ground railroad," over which fugitive slaves were trans¬ 
ported by night from the Ohio River to Canada. What 
stories were told of slave hunters, captures, kidnapers, hair¬ 
breadth escapes, and safe arrivals on Canadian soil! At 
great woods and tent meetings, sometimes running through 
several days, I heard many of the great abolition agitators 
—William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Parker 
Pillsbury, Henry C. Wright, Oliver Johnson, and many 
others. Anti-slavery meetings were held in schoolhouses, 
halls, and churches and always with a free forum. What 
clashes there were between anti-slavery and pro-slavery 
champions! Here is a single example of what often trans¬ 
pired : Miss Abbie Kelley, a woman of remarkable platform 
ability, was delivering an address in a large Quaker meet¬ 
inghouse, in Salem. There was a Methodist preacher 
present who challenged some of her statements. The battle 
of words waxed hot. The preacher, when worsted in the 
fray, lost his temper and exclaimed, “Madam, you have 


30 


THE STONE OF HELP 


brass enough in your face to make a ten-gallon kettle.” 
Quick as a flash the lady replied, “And you have sap enough 
in your head to fill it.” The preacher was hors de combat. 
Having been reared in the midst of such influences, I was 
intensely opposed to slavery, and in perfect accord with the 
emancipation policy. 


The Draft 

For some time volunteers were not numerous enough to 
make good the heavy losses sustained by sickness and battle. 
Congress enacted what was known as the National Enroll¬ 
ment Bill, which provided for drafting men for army serv¬ 
ice where volunteers were not sufficiently numerous. 

To stimulate patriotic fervor the President enlisted the 
religious sentiment of the loyal people of the country by 
proclaiming April 30, 1863, to be observed as a Day of 
National Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer. The town of 
Butler was noted for the large number of its citizens who 
were opposed to the war and in sympathy with the rebellion, 
known in those days as “copperheads.” I announced a fast- 
day prayer meeting at 10:30 A. m., and a sermon at 7:30 
p. m. I had up to this time followed the custom of all loyal 
ministers of praying for the President, the soldiers, and 
for the suppression of the rebellion, but had made no special 
deliverance concerning the policy of suppressing the rebel¬ 
lion by force of arms, having decided to make known my 
views on the approaching fast day. Considerable specula¬ 
tion was indulged concerning what the new Methodist 
preacher might say, and a rumor was in circulation that he 
would probably oppose the further prosecution of the war 
and favor settlement by separation. As our church edifice 
was small, accommodating only about two hundred, it was 
suggested that the service be held in the courthouse, which 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


3 .i 


would accommodate about six hundred, to which I con¬ 
sented. When the evening came the house was crowded. I 
announced as my text, Romans 13. 1, 2, “Let every soul 
be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power 
but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Who¬ 
soever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance 
of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves 
damnation/’ and proceeded to point out that human govern¬ 
ment is in all cases imperfect. Any form of organized 
government is better than anarchy. The Roman govern¬ 
ment in Paul’s day, under Nero, was corrupt and oppres¬ 
sive, and yet he advised Christians to be obedient, as it was 
ordained of God; and were the apostle living in our day, 
he would urge Christians to be obedient to the United States 
government, as it is far superior to the Roman government 
even when at its best. Resistance to government might be 
by armed rebellion, as was then carried on by the Southern 
States, or it might be by the manifestation of sympathy for 
the rebellion by people living in the North. The penalty 
for resistance, whether by armies or by personal sympathy 
and influence, was “damnation,” because in either case it was 
treason; and damnation meant destruction for the Con¬ 
federate government and the wreck and ruin of war, while 
to Northern sympathizers it meant disgrace, ignominy, and 
shame. I quoted from Parson Brownlow’s book on the 
rebellion: “A rebel has but two rights—a legal right to be 
hung and a divine right to be damned.” There was no 
applause, but there was an exodus of several people from 
the hall. 

Drafted 

The draft that had been ordered came a few weeks later. 
Butler borough was assessed thirty-one men. Most of the 


32 


THE STONE OF HELP 


men who were fit for military service, and in sympathy 
with the government, had already enlisted and were in the 
Union army. A few took counsel together and decided to 
make no effort to secure the men needed by offering large 
bounties, and the draft was enforced. The draft for the 
boroughs and townships that failed to furnish their quota 
of men came off at Allegheny City, the headquarters of the 
provost marshal’s district, which included Butler. When 
the names of the drafted men reached the town by tele¬ 
graph, my name had the honor of being at the head of the 
list. A crowd had gathered at the telegraph office just 
across the street from my residence. When I appeared at 
my door a derisive shout came from the crowd which in¬ 
cluded several drafted men. I crossed over, shook hands 
with the drafted men, and congratulated them upon being 
honored with invitations to the front. The news that the 
Methodist preacher was among the drafted spread rapidly 
through the town, and there was great rejoicing among his 
enemies, which, however, was short-lived, as his friends 
promptly put up $300, which was paid to the government 
to provide a substitute. I went to Allegheny City, the head¬ 
quarters of the provost marshal’s district, paid over the 
money, received my discharge, and returned to Butler to 
use the liberty my friends had so generously purchased. 


CHAPTER V 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 

(continued) 

At the session of the Pittsburgh Conference, held in 
March, 1864, I was appointed to Alliance, Ohio, my first 
station. The house of worship was a plain frame building, 
erected many years previously on the edge of the village of 
Freedom. Subsequently the Cleveland and Pittsburgh, and 
the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railroads were 
constructed, and their lines crossed a quarter of a mile 
southeast of the village, where a new town was laid out and 
named Alliance. The village became a part of the new 
town, leaving our house of worship on its extreme north¬ 
western border. Owing to the unfavorable location of the 
church edifice and the infrequency of the services, the con¬ 
gregation and membership had decreased, until what was 
once a strong country village church had become feeble, 
with a membership of about fifty. The town was growing 
rapidly. Other churches, more favorably located, were gain¬ 
ing, while we were falling behind. There were in our mem¬ 
bership a few heroic souls who requested the presiding 
elder to ask the presiding bishop to make Alliance a station, 
pledging themselves to provide a comfortable support for 
the pastor. Having spent parts of three years in the 
Alliance high school, and having become personally ac¬ 
quainted with most of the members of the church, I was 
quite surprised as well as gratified when I learned that the 
official members had petitioned for my appointment to the 

33 


34 


THE STONE OF HELP 


proposed station. In due time the station was established 
and I was put in charge. 


Revivals 

As I look back over the years spent in the pastorate it 
is especially gratifying to remember that not a year passed 
without a revival, resulting in some instances in many con¬ 
versions, and always in promoting the spiritual life of the 
church. 

At the beginning of my ministry I knew but little about 
“systematic theology,” not having had the advantage of a 
theological training. In those days I was not troubled 
with the “higher criticism,” and did not have much to say 
about the Bible, but tried to secure a knowledge of the 
truths —the great spiritual truths —revealed in the Bible 
and to preach those truths. These great truths when 
preached by one who has the passion of Christ for souls, 
will not fail to accomplish the salvation of sinners. The 
doctrine of eternal punishment is, I fear, too little empha¬ 
sized in these days. When all else fails, the appeal to fear 
must be made. Jesus made that appeal, and his ministers 
should not neglect it. He said: “Woe unto you, scribes and 
Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the 
prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous, and 
say: If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would 
not have been partakers with them in the blood of the 
prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that 
ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill 
ye up the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye genera¬ 
tion of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” 
(Matt. 23. 29-33.) 

But this awful doctrine can only be preached successfully 
out of a broken heart. The protracted meeting, held in the 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


35 


church in Alliance in the winter of 1864-65, had been in 
progress two weeks. The congregations filled the house at 
every service. The interest was marked, but there were no 
penitents at the altar. On the second Sabbath evening, I 
emphasized the awful consequences of a sin-ruined life. 
The next morning I met on the street a gentleman, with 
whom I had become personally acquainted, who attended 
my church regularly, though not a Christian. We greeted 
each other cordially as we passed, but stopping suddenly, 
he called my name. I turned around and as he approached, 
he said, “I think you made a mistake last night.” 

“In what?” I inquired. 

“Well, you talked about people going to hell, if they are 
not converted. Nobody believes that doctrine in these days 
and you will damage your popularity if you preach that 
way.” 

I replied: “I have been preaching every evening for two 
weeks, and this is the first comment I have heard. I think 
you must have been hurt by what was said last night.” 

He replied, “No, I was not hurt, but I am your friend, 
and I do not want you to damage your popularity.” 

I answered, “I am encouraged.” 

I was in a state of deep depression. The criticism of my 
friend entered my soul like a ray of light piercing the gloom. 
I was sure I had struck the right theme. I returned to my 
study, prepared a sermon on future punishment, and 
preached it that night, but without any visible results. The 
next morning I met my friend at almost the same spot on 
the street as the morning previous and he exclaimed with 
manifest agitation: “I tell you, you will ruin your reputa¬ 
tion as a preacher if you continue to preach that way. I 
heard a lady say last night as she was passing out of the 
house, that she had been seriously thinking of joining your 


36 THE STONE OF HELP 

church, but, ‘Leonard can’t frighten me into becoming reli¬ 
gious.’ ” 

I replied: “You were evidently badly wounded last night.” 

“No,” he answered, “I am not wounded, but I am much 
concerned for you and your popularity.” 

I was greatly encouraged and was willing to take all the 
chances on the question of my popularity. That day another 
sermon was prepared on the same theme and preached that 
night. An invitation was earnestly given to sinners, but 
there was no response. I knelt at the mourners’ bench 
alone and prayed. During the prayer, sobs were heard in 
the congregation. I arose and said: “If any desire to seek 
the Lord, let them come to this altar.” They came from all 
parts of the congregation, and the altar was filled from end 
to end, and among the number were my friend, who was so 
anxious about my popularity, and the woman who was not 
going to be frightened into becoming religious, and both 
professed conversion and joined the church. 

During my pastorate of two years at Alliance, Ohio, a 
revival spirit prevailed. The old house of worship was dis¬ 
posed of and a new edifice was erected at a central point 
and so far completed as to allow the basement to be used as 
a place of worship. The corner stone of this building was 
laid by Dr. T. M. Eddy, editor of the Northwestern Chris¬ 
tian Advocate, and Dr. S. H. Nesbit, editor of the Pitts¬ 
burgh Christian Advocate. April 30, 1896, when on my 
way to General Conference at Cleveland, I made the address 
and laid the cornerstone of the present commodious church 
edifice, in which a strong congregation is housed. 

Preach the Word 

Ministers of the gospel are sent out to preach the word. 
Paul’s charge to Timothy was: “Preach the word; be in- 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


37 


stant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with 
all longsuffering and doctrine’’ (2 Tim. 4. 2). “Study to 
show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth 
not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 
Tim. 2. 15). Nearly fifty times in his epistles Paul uses 
the word “truth” to represent the gospel of Christ, as the 
“power of God unto salvation.” He declared that he had 
“renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in 
craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully; but 
by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves [him¬ 
self] to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Cor. 
4. 2). Above all else, ministers should be preachers of the 
Word. They ought to be good “mixers” in society, good 
pastors, wise counselors, for young and old, but first of all 
preachers. Let the people say anything they may about 
him that is not immoral, but they should never have reason 
for saying he cannot preach. He is called to preach, and if 
he cannot preach, he is as a prophet of God a failure. Every 
congregation should be justified in saying, “Our minister 
is a preacher.” But what shall he preach? Jesus said, “Go 
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” 
Paul said, “Preach the word; rightly dividing the word of 
truth.” It is not important to preach very much about the 
Bible, but it is all important to preach the saving truth, con¬ 
tained in the Bible. Neither is it important to preach much 
about Christ, but it is vastly important to preach “Christ 
crucified,” the “power of God and the wisdom of God.” It 
is to be feared that there is too much preaching in these 
days about the Bible—when it was written, who wrote it, 
what part is inspired, or whether any of it is inspired. Also 
there is too much preaching about Christ—whether he was 
virgin-born, when he became conscious that he was divine, 
or whether he believed himself to be divine or only human. 


38 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Such preaching makes skeptics rather than converts and 
destroys rather than confirms the faith of the church. A 
Christian minister should have a rich experience of the 
saving power of the gospel, and out of that experience pro¬ 
claim what he knows is true, and he will not preach in 
vain, nor will he need to adopt eccentric methods or resort 
to flaming advertisements in order to secure a hearing. 

The fact that the pulpit is the post of honor and the place 
of power, cannot be emphasized too strongly. After twenty- 
eight years in the pastorate and presiding eldership and 
twenty-four years as corresponding secretary of the Mis¬ 
sionary Society and Board of Foreign Missions, I wish to 
place on record my deep conviction that the former is pref¬ 
erable to the latter. To have a pulpit is to have a throne 
that is higher than any office the church can bestow. To 
all young preachers I would say, Set your heart upon pulpit 
and pastoral service, and do your work so well that your 
people will regard it as a bereavement to lose you. If the 
church calls you to official responsibility, accept it, but allow 
no one to have an excuse for saying that you sought it by 
scheming or wire-working. Avoid rashness of speech, but 
never stifle a deep conviction for the purpose of securing 
popular favor or official promotion. 

The Assassination 

General Lee having surrendered to the invincible Grant, 
and the war being ended, there was great rejoicing through¬ 
out the land, including the four million Negroes in the 
South, who had been made free by the Emancipation Procla¬ 
mation. But all loyal hearts were plunged in deepest gloom 
when, on the night of April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was 
assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theater, in the 
nation’s capital. There had been many dark days during 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


39 


the bloody struggle, but this was the darkest of all. More 
than any one of the tragic events of the war, this one stag¬ 
gered the brain and paralyzed the heart of the nation. 
Everywhere men and women wept and were speechless. 
During the succeeding days while the body of the great 
and greatly loved President was being conveyed to its final 
resting place at Springfield, Illinois, the loyal people 
throughout the land were bowed in deepest sorrow. 


CHAPTER VI 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 
(continued) 

In the spring of 1866, upon the advice of the Rev. D. P. 
Mitchell, my first presiding elder, who was closing his third 
year in the pastorate of the First Methodist Episcopal 
Church, Leavenworth, Kansas, and upon the invitation of 
the official board, I was transferred to the Kansas Con¬ 
ference and appointed to the church just named. With my 
family I arrived in Leavenworth in time to attend the 
Kansas Conference, which met in Baldwin, in the month of 
March. The trip from Leavenworth to Baldwin, a distance 
of probably thirty-five or forty miles, was made in a light 
covered spring wagon, drawn by two horses. The occu¬ 
pants were the Rev. D. P. Mitchell, the P.ev. Samuel Mc- 
Burney, and myself. The roads were at their worst and 
travel was slow and difficult. We reached Lawrence late 
in the evening and were the guests of the Rev. H. D, Fisher 
and wife. In the evening we heard the story of the Quantrell 
raid upon Lawrence, an occurrence of the great Civil War, 
which had closed only a little more than a year previously. 
Brother Fisher was transferred from the Pittsburgh Con¬ 
ference to Kansas in the late fifties and was exposed to 
many perils during border-ruffian times. Soon after the 
war broke out he was appointed a chaplain in the Union 
army, and after slaves were declared to be “contraband of 
war” was placed in charge of a lot of these “contrabands,” 

40 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


4i 


who were taken on a Missouri River steamboat to Leaven¬ 
worth, put ashore and cared for, after which he visited his 
home in Lawrence, where he owned a comfortable plain 
brick residence, the foundations of which were laid in 
trenches. The dirt from the trenches was thrown up on 
the inside, making a ridge probably twelve or fifteen inches 
high, between which and the walls there was a corresponding 
depression, which later served as a protection in a time of 
special peril. Later a cellar was excavated under the rear 
part of the house, leaving a space of about three or four 
feet between the excavation and the wall. 

The Story 

The story related by Dr. and Mrs. Fisher on that March 
evening was substantially as follows: 

Day had just broken, August 21, 1863, and Mrs. Fisher 
was preparing to accompany a lady friend to the Kaw 
River Valley to gather a supply of wild plums for family 
use. Opening the front door, her attention was arrested by 
the discharge of firearms on the southeastern border of the 
city. She returned to her husband’s room, somewhat 
alarmed, and said she believed the rebels were upon them, 
as she heard the discharge of firearms. He replied it was 
probably city guards or boys discharging their revolvers. 
She returned to the door and saw the desperadoes entering 
the city and firing upon everyone in sight. Returning again 
to her husband, who was in bed suffering from a recent 
attack of quinsy, she said in consternation: '‘The rebels are 
coming directly toward our house, and unless you escape 
quickly, you will be murdered in your bed.” Only scantily 
attired, he and their two older boys left the house by a rear 
door, and started for the “bush,” which, fortunately, was 


42 


THE STONE OF HELP 


not far away. Mrs. Fisher, remaining in the house, with 
her young baby in her arms, awaited the approach of the 
raiders. A few moments later, when they were less than 
a square away, Brother Fisher returned to the rear door and 
called. Greatly frightened, she exclaimed: “Why have you 
come back?” and he replied: “My strength failed me and 
something seemed to say that I should return.” The boys 
hastened into the “bush,” a thicket just outside the city. 
She said: “Go into the cellar and hide the best you can, and 
I will do my best to save you.” He entered the cellar by 
an outside stairway, crawled over the ridge above described 
and stretched himself on his back in the depression, close 
against the south wall. Several of the raiders entered the 
house and demanded the whereabouts of her husband. She 
replied that he had taken to the “bush” quite a while ago. 
“Do you think he is fool enough to stay here and be mur¬ 
dered?” They required a lamp that they might search the 
cellar, which was provided by Mrs. Fisher, but being of 
poor quality, was extinguished by a draft from the cellar 
door. They demanded a better lamp and she replied that 
she would have to go upstairs to get it and that one of them 
must take care of the baby while she was gone. One of the 
ruffians took the baby in his arms and began to talk to and 
play with it and held it until the mother returned with the 
lamp. Two men entered the cellar, one carrying the lamp 
and the other holding a revolver in each hand. The wife 
closed her eyes and tremblingly awaited the report of the 
weapon that would announce the death of her husband. 
After a thorough search, they returned, muttering that he 
was not there. On entering the cellar the lamp was elevated 
above the heads of the would-be murderers, which caused 
the shadow of a joist running lengthwise with the wall to 
fall upon and obscure the one for whom they were searching. 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


43 


They searched the upper rooms, and finding no one, pro¬ 
ceeded to break up the furniture and kindle a fire upon 
the second floor. As they departed Mrs. Fisher ascended 
the stairs with a bucket of water in each hand, with which 
the fire was quickly extinguished. Noting that the fire was 
not making headway, several of the raiders returned, re¬ 
kindled it and remained until the flames were well under 
way, one of them remarking that this house was one 
“marked to be burned,” and warned the heroine of the hour 
not to attempt to extinguish the fire again. Seeing that 
she could not save the house, she determined to save some 
of the furnishings from the first floor and proceeded to 
pitch the chairs and tables into the back yard, tore up the 
parlor carpet and dragged it out; went to the wardrobe and 
gathered her arms full of garments, which with other 
articles were hurled out of the back door. Having com¬ 
municated with her husband through the rear cellar door, 
and knowing where he was, she drew water from the well 
and threw it upon the floor immediately above the place 
where he lay and stayed somewhat the approaching flames. 
When further protection was impossible, she went to the 
cellar door and said: “Now is your time, if ever.” As he 
emerged from the cellar she threw over him a dress skirt, 
turned round and picked up the edge of the carpet, under 
which he crept, which she dragged into the garden, he crawl¬ 
ing along on hands and knees and the edge of the carpet 
was hitched to a prong on the trunk of. a small peach tree. 
She then heaped upon him the clothes and furniture she 
had saved, the latter inflicting some bruises, for which he 
made no complaint, and all this was done in full view of the 
raiders, who were mounted upon their horses, with rifles 
in their hands, hoping that the object of their murderous 
purpose would emerge from the burning building. When 


44 


THE STONE OF HELP 


the roof had fallen in and the floors were all aflame, dis¬ 
appointed in their bloody quest, they fired their rifles into 
the burning house, probably hoping that a random shot 
might accomplish their murderous purpose. For self-con¬ 
trol and courage, Mrs. Fisher’s conduct scarcely has a 
parallel in history. It was a wonder that reason was not 
dethroned. Two hundred and five of the citizens of Law¬ 
rence were murdered and many business houses and private 
residences were burned. 

The Kansas Conference 

The Kansas Conference, which at that time included the 
entire State of Kansas, met in Baldwin, in March, 1866, 
under the presidency of Bishop Calvin Kingsley. The 
village was small and was scattered over quite a large area. 
As was said of many villages in Kansas at that period, “it 
was extensively laid out but thinly settled.” Already Baker 
University had been founded and the Conference was held 
in the chapel of the university building, which was small 
and very plain, there being no church edifice in the village. 
The Conference contained five presiding elders’ districts 
and fifty-nine members and probationers. Among the num¬ 
ber were several who made memorable records for effective 
service, namely, H. D. Fisher, W. R. Davis, D. P. Mitchell, 
G. S. Dearborn, J. Shaw, J. Denison, W. K. Marshall, and 
B. F. Bowman. 

At the close of the Conference I was appointed pastor of 
the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Leavenworth, 
which had a membership of three hundred and sixteen. 
During the war the city grew rapidly. Many loyal citizens 
of Missouri and of the southern part of Kansas fled to 
Leavenworth for protection against Confederate raiders; 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


45 


but now that peace was restored, many returned to their 
former homes and others went to the middle and western 
part of the State and took up homesteads, converting the 
raw prairie into fertile farms. This exodus from the city 
caused a falling off in population, depression in business, and 
considerable depletion of members in all the churches. 


CHAPTER VII 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 
(continued) 

A Tragedy 

In the late fifties and early sixties there was no person¬ 
ality more prominent and picturesque in the West than that 
of General James H. Lane. When the Quantrell raid was 
made upon Lawrence, General Lane was a resident of that 
city, and although he was among the number designated to 
be slain, succeeded in escaping to the “bush.” His leader¬ 
ship of Free State men during border ruffian times had made 
him very odious to border ruffians and their sympathizers. 
As quickly as possible, while the fires that destroyed the 
city were still smoldering and many of the slain were un¬ 
buried, Lane organized a band of Kansans and marched 
into Missouri with the purpose of wreaking vengeance upon 
the bloody-handed raiders. 

It was reported that a considerable number of the guerillas 
and their sympathizers were put to death without the aid of 
judge or jury, but the exact number was not made known. 
Afterward, as the idol of his party, General Lane was 
elected to the United States Senate and at once was a 
conspicuous figure in that distinguished body. Upon the 
assassination of President Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Vice- 
President, succeeded to the presidency. Then came the 
prolonged period of reconstruction, in which President 

46 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


47 


Johnson gave his influence largely, if not wholly, in favor 
of those who had engaged in the rebellion, which resulted 
in his impeachment by the House for “high crimes and 
misdemeanors,” of which he was acquitted by the Senate, 
after a trial lasting from March 23 to May 26, 1868. Un¬ 
fortunately and strangely, Senator Lane sided with Presi¬ 
dent Johnson, which resulted in his almost unanimous re¬ 
pudiation by the rank and file of the people of Kansas. 

In the midst of political excitement and turmoil, caused 
by the policy of President Johnson, Senator Lane left Wash¬ 
ington, and returned to his home in Lawrence. Previously 
his return to his home town was greeted by bands of music 
and processions, but now there was none to do him honor. 
A few days later, Hon. Sidney Clark, then the only member 
of the lower House from Kansas, and who did not follow 
President Johnson, returned to his home in Lawrence and 
was enthusiastically greeted at the railroad depot by almost 
the entire populace of the town. This rejection by the 
citizens of Kansas and of his home town, it was said, “broke 
Senator Lane’s heart.” Soon after this incident the Senator 
left Lawrence, with the purpose of returning to Washington. 
Arriving at Saint Louis, he was by medical authority pro¬ 
nounced unfit to continue the journey, and his wife, who 
accompanied him, was advised to take him to their home. 
Not desiring to go to Lawrence, he stopped with his brother- 
in-law, who resided on the government farm, just outside 
of Leavenworth City. 

Senator Lane and my predecessor, the Rev. D. P. Mitchell, 
were personal friends, and now in his great distress the 
Senator was anxious for an interview, probably hoping that 
some comfort might be obtained. It was said of the Senator 
that when he was ill he was religiously inclined, but when 
well seemed to have no interest in religious matters, remind- 


48 


THE STONE OF HELP 


ing one of the saying: “When the devil was sick, the devil 
a monk would be, but when the devil got well, the devil a 
monk was he.” Not knowing that Brother Mitchell was 
no longer pastor of First Church, a messenger was sent to 
the parsonage, requesting him to come promptly to the resi¬ 
dence on the government farm. The messenger was in¬ 
formed that Brother Mitchell was no longer pastor of the 
church, and the name of his successor was given. Very soon 
the messenger returned, saying that Senator Lane desired 
to see the new pastor. As I had never met the Senator, and 
knew him only by reputation, which by reason of recent 
political occurrences was quite below par, it was with no 
small amount of trepidation that I complied with the request. 
Arriving at the residence, I was directed to the Senator’s 
room on the second floor, where he was found in bed, at¬ 
tended by his physician. When informed who his visitor 
was he entered at once upon an elaborate confession of his 
unworthiness and sinfulness, and at the conclusion requested 
me to repair to the parlor on the first floor and have prayers 
on his behalf. He did not ask for any words of instruction 
or comfort, but earnestly urged that prayer should be 
offered in the room below. Repairing to the parlor, I found 
it occupied by army officers from the fort and by politicians 
of the city, not one of whom I had ever met. Not knowing 
what to do, I took a seat and awaited developments. In 
a few moments a messenger came from the Senator’s room 
to inquire whether prayer was being made on his behalf. 
Whereupon, summoning all my courage, I arose and said: 
“Gentlemen, Senator Lane sends an urgent request that 
prayer shall be offered on his behalf. If you will kindly 
kneel with me, I will lead in prayer.” Instantly every one 
present complied with the request and prayer was offered. 

The next morning, feeling under obligation to look after 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


49 


the spiritual interests of my new parishioner, I repaired 
to the farm residence. As I approached the door from the 
highway the Senator came out walking rapidly. We met 
face to face for the first time. As we took each other’s 
hand I looked him fully in the face, and this is what I 
thought, “If you are not crazy, then I have never seen a 
crazy man.” He said, “Go in and talk with Mrs. Lane and 
I will join you very soon.” After a few moments he re¬ 
turned and without even casting a glance into the parlor, 
hastened up the hall stairway. Mrs. Lane went quickly to 
the hall and called him. He turned, came down the stairs 
rapidly and, entering the parlor, stood in my presence, 
before I had time to arise, and said: “I can’t talk to you this 
morning, sir. It tears me to pieces in here,” drawing his 
hands across his breast. Immediately he turned and 
ascended the stairs, and Mrs. Lane apologized, saying her 
husband was feeling very badly and was greatly depressed. 
This was on Saturday morning. The next morning a drive 
around the government grounds was planned, and two of 
the Senator’s friends accompanied him. On their way they 
came to a pair of bars, and while one of the men was 
removing them the Senator stepped from the carriage, and 
placing in his mouth the point of a revolver, which he had 
secreted on his person, fired, the ball entering the roof of 
his mouth and coming out at the crown of his head. He 
fell to earth like a dead man and was picked up by his two 
companions and placed in the carriage, which was driven 
with all possible speed to the farm residence. Surgeons 
were called and it was decided that the wound was fatal. 
The news spread through the city that Senator Lane had 
committed suicide, which produced a profound sensation. 
On Monday morning I again visited the residence and found 
that the Senator was still alive. He was lying on a bed, 


50 


THE STONE OF HELP 


with his eyes closed, one side being entirely paralyzed. The 
only sign of consciousness was that he held his wife’s hand, 
and when she withdrew it he felt about for it until she 
replaced it in his. For eight days not a word escaped his 
lips, nor was there any sign of consciousness except as above 
indicated. On the eighth day, when the surgeons were mak¬ 
ing an examination, he opened his eyes and said, “Gentle¬ 
men, this is a bad case,” and on the thirteenth day he died, 
not having uttered another word ; and the career of James 
H. Lane, which had been a remarkable one, was ended. 

First Church, Leavenworth 

My predecessor in the pastorate of First Church, the Rev. 
D. P. Mitchell, was a man of great ability and energy. Dur¬ 
ing the three years of his pastorate he made a profound im¬ 
pression, not only upon Leavenworth City, but upon the 
entire State of Kansas. The capacity of the church edifice 
was not equal to the numbers that wished to hear him, and 
often many were turned away. He was in demand for 
sermons and addresses on important occasions, not only in 
the city but in the surrounding country. As a defender of 
the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion he had 
scarcely an equal and no superior. He was a religious 
athlete, and in his numerous public debates east and west 
was never vanquished. He did not hesitate to denounce 
political corruption and corruptionists, and was an open 
and avowed enemy of the traffic in intoxicating liquors. 
His pastorate commenced in 1863, when many loyal hearts 
were trembling and the final outcome of the great Civil War 
was in the balance; but from his pulpit there was no note 
of discouragement as to the final outcome. Patriotism with 
him was a flaming passion. 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


5i 


To follow such a man in the leading Methodist Episcopal 
Church in Kansas was no easy task or small responsibility 
for one of my years and experience. I was in my twenty- 
ninth year and had had six years in pastoral service—four 
on circuits and two in a station. During the autumn of my 
first year Dr. and Mrs. Palmer, of New York, the widely 
known evangelists and advocates of the doctrine and experi¬ 
ence of entire sanctification, were making a tour through the 
West and I succeeded in securing their services in First 
Church for two weeks. The way had been prepared for 
their coming, and from the first there was a deep spiritual 
quickening in the membership of the church, accompanied 
by numerous conversions. These meetings marked an im¬ 
portant crisis in my own experience. One evening, when 
the altar was filled with people seeking pardon and holiness, 
there came to me a spiritual uplift which established me 
upon a higher plane of spiritual life than I had previously 
enjoyed and has remained with me to the present hour. 
Although it has been forty-seven years since that crisis came 
into my soul, it is as clear and distinct in my memory and 
experience now as in the moment when it transpired. 

There was nothing extravagant in the teachings or 
methods of these two servants of God, but there was a clear, 
calm, strong putting of the Wesleyan and scriptural doctrine 
of holiness to be experienced by believers, as well as of 
repentance unto salvation for sinners. 

A Kansas Blizzard 

The Kansas Conference was held in Manhattan, in the 
month of March, 1867, Bishop Ames presiding. On the 
morning previous to the opening of the Conference a party, 
consisting of Bishop Ames, Dr. Poe, book agent at Cin¬ 
cinnati, and wife, Dr. Crary, editor of the Central Christian 


52 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Advocate, and several members of the Conference, took 
the train at Leavenworth for Manhattan. The train was 
made up of several freight cars, an express and a baggage 
car, and two passenger coaches. The temperature was low 
for the season, clouds were lowering, the wind from the 
northwest was strong, and there was every indication of a 
March snowstorm. Soon fine snow began to fall, and by 
the time the train passed Lawrence we were in the grip of 
a typical Kansas blizzard. The train stopped at every 
station and picked up, among others, preachers and their 
wives, bound for Conference. All went well, notwithstand¬ 
ing the blizzard, until we were within about twenty-five 
miles of Manhattan, when the train ran into a cut six or 
eight feet deep, across which the wind swept and in which 
the snow had accumulated to the depth of two or three feet. 
The cut was probably not more than one hundred yards 
long, and although our engineer drove his machine into the 
drift with whatever force he could command, hoping to 
plow his way through, the speed was rapidly diminished, 
and before we were half way to the end of the cut our train 
came to a standstill. The engineer backed several times and 
as often tried to force his way through, and, failing, gave 
up the impossible task. In view of the possibility of being 
snowbound, the train carried a supply of shovels with which 
to clear the track in such an emergency. The conductor 
entered the passenger coaches and stated that the cut was 
not of great length and that if the passengers who were able- 
bodied would aid the trainmen in clearing away the snow, 
we could probably reach our destination before dark. It 
was then about three o’clock in the afternoon, and we were, 
as before stated, about twenty-five miles from Manhattan. 
All the able-bodied men, laymen and preachers, promptly 
volunteered, and soon a large gang were making the snow 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


53 


fly from the tracks. The engineer detached his engine from 
the train and as the track was cleared moved up. He would 
have moved the train, but the snow clogged the car wheels 
and rapidly increased so that it was impossible to move the 
train as a whole. The engine released, the track was cleared 
for the first car, which was pulled out by the engine. Thus 
one after another of the cars were released until all were 
out except the second passenger coach, which had become 
so thoroughly blocked by the drifting snow that it could not 
be moved. Besides, night was coming on, and the men using 
the shovels, some of whom were not accustomed to such 
vigorous exercise, were quite exhausted. The passengers in 
this last, thoroughly snow-imprisoned coach were ordered 
to change to the car ahead. 

The question now was how to pass the night with the 
least discomfort. Two things were needed—warmth and 
food. The car was provided with two flat-backed wood 
stoves, one in either hand, and the supply of wood for fuel 
was exhausted. It was found that among the freight cars 
was one loaded with pine joists, which settled the fuel ques¬ 
tion. Fortunately, there were axes aboard and they were 
used in converting the joists into stove wood. 

The question of food was quite as serious as that of 
fuel. The conductor examined his waybill and found that 
in the express car there were a barrel of eggs and a good- 
sized dressed pig. The express car was quickly opened and 
the eggs and the pig were placed under requisition. Now 
arose the question of cooking, which the women quickly 
solved. The flat-backed stoves were made as clean as cir¬ 
cumstances would allow. Daily newspapers, of which there 
was a good supply, were by the deft hands of a woman 
converted into frying pans in which eggs were scrambled 
on one stove, while on the other, slices of pig were fried. 


54 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Never were eggs and pig more thoroughly appreciated, 
although both must be eaten without salt. 

When morning dawned the blizzard had ceased and the 
sky was clear, although there still prevailed a sharp north¬ 
west wind. Word came that a rescue force was clearing 
the track ahead, but when they would reach and rescue us 
was not known. A Brother Spillman and the writer, from 
the rear platform of the coach, saw smoke ascending from 
the chimney of a cabin about half a mile distant. We de¬ 
cided to visit the cabin, with the hope that we might obtain 
food for the women and children that would supplement 
the eggs and pig. The walk across the prairie was not a 
long one, but was laborious by reason of snowdrifts which 
were occasionally encountered. Arriving at the cabin, we 
found it occupied by an Irishman and his wife, the latter 
being in poor health and their circumstances being such as 
to indicate that they would not be able to supply our needs. 
Looking still further across the prairie, we saw smoke 
ascending from another chimney and we determined to 
continue our quest. Arriving at the house, we found it to 
be the home of a division boss on the railroad. Here we 
were accorded a hearty welcome and our story was heard 
with sympathetic interest. The boss and his men were at 
breakfast, and the good woman invited us to seats near 
the well-heated cookstove. While the husband and the men 
were finishing their breakfast she cooked a beefsteak for 
her uninvited guests, and while they were taking their 
breakfast she cooked all the beefsteak she possessed, made 
a coffee boiler of first-class coffee, and baked a large platter 
of biscuit. Packing the beefsteak and biscuits into a bucket 
and pointing to the boiler of coffee, she bade us take both, 
adding that we need not return either bucket or boiler, but 
leave both at the side of the track and her husband would 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


55 


bring them home. When we inquired as to cost she said 
there would be no cost. However, we left enough money 
on the table to fully reimburse her for all the supplies so 
generously furnished. I have always recalled with special 
pleasure the whole-souled generosity of that good Irish 
woman. Our return to the car was hailed with great delight 
by a company of women and children, glad to have a break¬ 
fast of something better than eggs scrambled in a newspaper 
frying pan and pig fried on the back of the stove. The 
rescue party reached us at about six o’clock in the afternoon 
and we arrived at Manhattan about eight the same evening 
—one day late for the opening of the Conference. 

Lost on a Prairie 

Late in the autumn of 1867 I was requested by my pre¬ 
siding elder to hold a quarterly meeting in a country school- 
house some fifteen miles from Leavenworth City. I made 
the trip on Sunday morning, in a light, covered buggy, 
drawn by a white pony, and preached at 10:30 a. m. and 
again at 3 p. m. The day was dark and at no time did the 
sun break through the heavy clouds. At the close of the 
afternoon service I started on the return trip to Leaven¬ 
worth City. I knew that about five miles distant I would 
strike an open prairie that was three or four miles wide, 
across which there was no fenced road. When I reached 
the edge of the prairie it was “pitch-dark.” The track was 
dry, and the pony being gentle, I gave him loose rein. By 
the clatter of his feet on the hard earth, I knew he was keep¬ 
ing the way. The road lay along a gentle slope to and 
across a strip of marshy ground, drained by a wet-weather 
creek, across which there was no bridge and beyond which 
there was another gentle rise. When probably half way 
down the slope my pony sprang quickly to the right, and 


56 


THE STONE OF HELP 


before I could bring the reins into use had gotten away 
from the track several rods. Bringing him to a standstill, 
I alighted and took him by the bit. Then I heard the voice 
of a person on the road whose presence had frightened my 
pony, with whom I kept up a conversation until I recovered 
the track, and then walked on, leading my pony until I 
reached the low ground and crossed the wet-weather 
stream. Here I lost the road, and as I struck the higher 
ground, found myself on a trackless prairie. I wandered 
on, not knowing which way I was going, having lost all 
knowledge of the points of the compass, but hoping that I 
might be so fortunate as to strike the track. 

Standing with the pony as my only companion and 
meditating upon how I would spend the night and what pro¬ 
tection I could devise from the buggy should a storm sweep 
the prairie, I heard a voice as of some one in distress. In 
those days, just succeeding border-ruffian times, one might 
well be doubtful as to the character of night wanderers. As 
I waited the voice came again and again, and at length the 
thought occurred to me that it might be the call of some 
one in the same condition as myself—lost. I answered. 
We continued answering each other’s calls, he coming my 
way until he was near enough to understand words, when 
I said: “Who are you?” He replied: “I am a colored man, 
sir.” I replied, “I am not a colored man, but we are both 
of a color now.” I found that he, with a friend, had lost 
their way as I had mine. I knew that I could not be far 
from the road that we both wanted to find, and I suggested 
that he take charge of my pony while I made a search. I 
described a circle in my search, as nearly as possible con¬ 
stantly widening the same, until in less than a half hour 
I struck the road. Then I called to my new-found friend 
and he came to me. He then called to his friend, who drove 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


57 

to where we were waiting. Had the road been on a level, 
I would not have known which way to go, but as it was on 
a slope, I knew that I must take the upward direction. We 
congratulated each other, said good-night and parted, they 
going toward Lawrence and I toward Leavenworth. I 
continued to walk until I reached the fenced road, when I 
drove on at good speed, reaching home toward midnight. 

Appointed Presiding Elder 

At the close of the annual session of the Conference, 
held in Lawrence, in March, 1868, and presided over by 
Bishop Thomson, I was removed from the pastorate of 
First Church, although invited back for the third year by 
a unanimous vote of the Quarterly Conference, and was 
appointed presiding elder of the Leavenworth District. The 
district contained sixteen pastoral charges, and covered a 
large territory in northeastern Kansas. The pastoral 
charges were largely made up of circuits, on several of 
which there was not a church edifice of any kind, and 
services were held in private homes or schoolhouses. Every 
schoolhouse in Kansas was a meetinghouse in those days, 
and was often occupied on the Sabbath Day at different 
hours by two or three denominations. Sometimes Quar¬ 
terly Meetings were held in groves, where they were avail¬ 
able, and sometimes under booths constructed of posts set 
in the ground, connected by poles overhead and covered 
with branches of trees, brought a considerable distance, to 
afford protection against the hot summer sun. In the 
winter, when outdoor meetings were impossible, there was 
frequently great discomfort and sometimes great confusion, 
which a single example will illustrate. The Quarterly Meet¬ 
ing was held in a schoolhouse in the month of February. 
The weather had been cold and the earth was frozen. On 


58 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Saturday night there came a fall of snow which lightly 
covered the prairie. Sunday morning came with bright sun¬ 
shine and a milder temperature, which soon converted the 
snow into water, making the roads and schoolyard sloppy. 
The people came, on foot, on horseback, and in wagons. 
There were a number of mothers with small children and 
several with babies in their arms. They packed the school- 
house to its utmost capacity. I foresaw trouble from the 
babies, but I resolved that, no matter how much disturbance 
they might make, I would not complain. When I was 
fairly started with my sermon the babies began whimpering 
and a little further on several were crying loudly, while 
the mothers were trying to quiet them by tucking them 
under their shawls and cloaks. Meanwhile I was keeping 
up my voice so that I might be heard above the crying 
babies, and when I had about reached my limit two dogs that 
had worked their way through the crowd from either side 
of the house met at my feet and clinched for a fight, where¬ 
upon two stalwart fellows pressed their way to the scene of 
conflict and each grabbed his dog by the scruff of the neck, 
held him aloft, and, making their way to the door, flung out 
the belligerent canines. When order was fairly well re¬ 
stored, I said: “It is pretty difficult to preach against the 
crying of a half dozen babies; but to preach against the 
crying of so many babies and the fighting of two dogs is 
more than should be required from any mortal. Bring your 
babies to church, of course, but for the sake of decency, 
leave your dogs at home.” 

A Dedication 

My Quarterly Meeting was at Hiawatha, the county 
seat of Brown County, in connection with the dedication of 
our new stone church edifice, the first one erected in the 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


59 

town, which at that time had a population of five or six 
hundred. 

The dedication of the new church had been looked for¬ 
ward to with great interest, not only by the people of the 
village, but by those in the surrounding country as well. 
The weather was still cold and the streets and country roads 
were obstructed by the drifted snow. The church edifice 
was quadrangular in form, without vestibule or corridor, 
was plainly seated and furnished and would accommodate 
probably three hundred and fifty people. At the morning 
service, notwithstanding the cold weather, the house was 
well filled. The sermon ended, the tug of war came on in 
providing for a debt of $1,800. There was but one man of 
even moderate wealth connected with the church and he had 
already given $500. I asked the pastor, the Rev. J. A. Simp¬ 
son, how much additional this brother would give, and he 
replied that he did not know and he feared to ask him, lest 
he would decide that he had reached his limit. The people 
as a whole, members and a few nonmembers, had given 
generously and the prospect of securing an additional $1,800 
was not encouraging. Before asking for pledges I made 
the following statement: “No one owning property in this 
town or immediate vicinity has up to this day given [empha¬ 
sizing the word “given”] a dollar for the erection of this 
house of worship.” Casting a glance toward the well-to-do 
brother, who owned a fine farm just beyond the north line 
of the town (he being tall and rather slender, and sitting 
bent forward somewhat), it seemed to me that he grew 
about a foot instantly and looked at me with an expression 
of astonishment. I saw that my statement had at least 
arrested his attention. I then said that every man who 
owned real estate in the town and vicinity regarded his 
property as having increased in value by reason of the pres- 


6o 


THE STONE OF HELP 


ence of the house of worship by a far larger sum than he 
had up to that day contributed for its erection, and that 
at that moment they were all debtors to the house and should 
begin to pay what they owed. Before the service closed every 
dollar of the debt was pledged with a margin for possible 
shrinkage, of which the well-to-do brother gave an addi¬ 
tional $500, and the edifice was formally dedicated. With 
several others I was that brother’s guest for dinner that 
day. When he had carved the turkey and served the guests 
and before taking his seat at the table, he said: “Brother 
Leonard, do you know what I thought when you stated that 
up to to-day nobody that owned real estate in this vicinity 
had given a dollar to the erection of our church?” I an¬ 
swered, “Yes, I saw by the expression of your face that 
you thought it was not true.” He replied, “Yes, that was 
just what I thought, but in a moment I saw that it was true, 
and I acted accordingly.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 
(continued) 

Return to Pittsburgh Conference 

In the latter part of 1869 I was, by reason of impaired 
health, released by Bishop Janes from the supervision of 
the Leavenworth District and retransferred to the Pitts¬ 
burgh Conference. In March, 1870, I was appointed pastor 
of Smithfield Church, Pittsburgh, following Dr. Hiram 
Miller, one of the strongest men of the Conference. The 
church had on its roll three hundred and nineteen members 
and twenty-two probationers, scattered over Pittsburgh, 
Allegheny, Birmingham, and East Liberty, some residing 
as far away as Wall’s Station, about fifteen miles from the 
location of the church—all now included in the city of 
Pittsburgh. The pastoral duties in a congregation so 
widely distributed were very numerous and onerous. The 
half of every week day, when other duties and the weather 
would permit, was spent in visiting “from house to house.” 

Early in the winter of 1870 a series of evangelistic meet¬ 
ings were held, resulting in the promotion of the spiritual 
life of the church and the conversion of sinners. The re¬ 
vival did not die out with the passing of the winter, but 
continued to the end of my pastorate, in the spring of 1873, 
when there were four hundred and fifty full members and 
forty probationers, a total of five hundred and ninety. The 
revival spirit that prevailed at all seasons attracted the 

61 


62 


THE STONE OF HELP 


people quite beyond the capacity of the house and frequently 
many were turned away. 

Visit to Pacific Coast 

In March, 1871, I joined an excursion party and made 
my first trip across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific 
Coast. When a short distance west of Omaha our train 
met a violent blizzard, which held us up from late in the 
afternoon to about noon of the next day. During the eve¬ 
ning a religious service was held in our car and several 
addresses were made. This was my second blizzard ex¬ 
perience and was far less uncomfortable than the former one 
in Kansas, as we occupied a sleeping car and there was no 
lack of food. The next morning the body of an Indian 
woman was found near our train, who had perished in the 
storm during the night. 

Our party stopped over a Sabbath at Salt Lake City and 
attended a Mormon service in the great Tabernacle. Brig¬ 
ham Young and his apostles occupied elevated seats in the 
rear of and above the pulpit, while bishops flanked the 
pulpit on either side. While in Salt Lake, by the courtesy 
of a bishop of the Mormon Church, several of our party had 
an interview with Brigham Young. One of our party (a 
Baptist minister) fell into a heated argument with the 
bishop on the question of polygamy. The argument was in 
the main theological, and from the Old Testament point of 
view the bishop had the advantage; but when they got into 
the New Testament, the advantage was with the other side. 
At what seemed to be the proper moment, the Baptist min¬ 
ister quoted Paul—“A bishop must be the husband of one 
wife.” Up to that point Brigham Young had sat a silent 
listener, but he could restrain himself no longer and broke 
in abruptly and with evident feeling, as the Baptist brother 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


63 

was pressing the bishop sharply: “Yes, a bishop must have 
one wife, but he can have as many more as he wants.” At 
this point the war of words, which had been going on for 
half an hour, ceased and the interview closed, both the com¬ 
batants seeming glad to end the fray. 

The journey over the Rocky Mountains, across Utah and 
Nevada, the Sierra Nevada range, and through the Sacra¬ 
mento Valley was a succession of scenic wonders and sur¬ 
prises. In the years that intervened between 1872 and 1914 
I have crossed the great plains, deserts, and mountain ranges 
many times, on all the great railroad lines, including the 
Canadian Pacific, and have gazed upon the majestic scenery 
of Yellowstone National Park and the Yosemite—their 
snow-crowned mountains, deep, rocky ravines, gloomy 
caverns, majestic waterfalls, silver lakes, rapid rivers, boil¬ 
ing springs, and spouting geysers—but have found no words 
that can adequately describe them. They remain in 
memory’s gallery to be often looked upon with special 
pleasure as the years come and go. 

Transferred to Cincinnati Conference 

The Pittsburgh Conference held its annual session in 
Salem, Ohio, March 3, 1873, under the presidency of Bishop 
W. L. Harris. During the session there appeared a com¬ 
mittee from Cincinnati which invited me to the pastorate 
of Saint John’s Church in that city. The invitation was a 
complete surprise, as not even a hint had reached me that 
it was contemplated. Near the close of the session Bishop 
Harris requested me to see him at his place of entertain¬ 
ment. He stated that the invitation was very urgent and 
that if I did not positively refuse, he would make the trans¬ 
fer. I replied that I would not take the responsibility of 
declining, and the appointment was made. 


64 


THE STONE OF HELP 


The Committee from Saint John’s informed me that 
extensive repairs had been made on the church edifice and 
that there was a debt of a few thousand dollars, which was 
covered by reliable pledges; that the debt would be cared 
for by the trustees, while I would be expected to give all 
my time to pulpit and pastoral duties. Soon after entering 
upon the pastorate of the church I learned that a mortgage 
for $8,000 was held by the Andese Insurance Company of 
Cincinnati, which was in progress of liquidation, by reason 
of losses sustained in the Chicago conflagration, which oc¬ 
curred in October, 1871, and that a second mortgage, held 
by the same company for $6,000, would mature in the near 
future. As liquidation was in progress, and all available 
assets were demanded, the entire sum of $14,000, with 
accrued interest, at eight per cent, must be paid or fore¬ 
closure of the mortgages and sale of the property would take 
place. A meeting of the official board was called to consider 
the situation. It was found that in addition to the mortgage 
debt of $14,000, there was a floating debt of $3,000 on 
current expenses, making a total of $17,000, while the avail¬ 
able pledges amounted to only about $4,000. Upon return¬ 
ing to the parsonage I stated the financial situation to my 
wife, and added that if there was a church anywhere to 
which I could be appointed, I would accept. Looking into 
my face, she said with a smile, “You will back out, will 
you?” Feeling a bit ashamed at the gentle reproof, I an¬ 
swered : “No, I will not back out. I will do my best here at 
Saint John’s for one year and then we will return to the 
Pittsburgh Conference.” To abbreviate a long story, plans 
were made for tiding over the financial crisis and the mort¬ 
gage debt was paid. A canvass was made of the wealthier 
Cincinnati Methodists, who gave prompt and generous 
assistance. I can never forget the cordial reception I was 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 65 

given by John Coconour, John R. Wright, Edward Sargent, 
and others. Bishop Foster, who was elected to the episco¬ 
pacy in 1872, had come to Cincinnati to reside. A public 
service was held in Saint John’s on Christmas Day, with 
Bishop Foster as the preacher. The service had been an¬ 
nounced in all our city churches the Sabbath previous, and 
duly advertised in the Western Christian Advocate, the 
object of the service, namely, to aid in paying the debt, being 
distinctly stated. The contributions were liberal, and the 
result was that within a year $12,000 of the debts had been 
paid and the remaining $5,000 had been obtained by a loan 
bearing six per cent interest. 

My purpose to return to the Pittsburgh Conference at the 
end of one year had been steadily pursued, and was well 
known by the people of Saint John’s. Bishops Janes and 
Foster, the former to preside in the Pittsburgh Conference 
in March and the latter in the Cincinnati Conference, the 
following September, agreed to my transfer. My final 
service in Saint John’s was announced for March 10, and 
the Pittsburgh Conference was to meet March 13. As I 
arose to deliver what I supposed would be my last sermon 
from that pulpit as pastor, three men from the Walnut Hills 
Church entered, with whom I had become personally ac¬ 
quainted. Although no knowledge of their visit had 
reached me, the thought flashed through my mind that they 
were there to sample my preaching ability with a view to an 
invitation to the pulpit of their church if my performance 
that morning should prove to be satisfactory. My next 
thought was, “Well, if that is the object of your visit, you 
are too late, for already my transfer to the Pittsburgh Con¬ 
ference is practically made.” 

At the close of the service they informed me of the object 
of their visit, and extended a very cordial invitation to the 


66 


THE STONE OF HELP 


pulpit of Walnut Hills Church for the ensuing Conference 
year. I reminded them of the announcement that I had just 
made in their hearing, namely, that my pastorate at Saint 
John’s was closed and that I would leave for the Pittsburgh 
Conference the following Tuesday. They urgently re¬ 
quested me to meet them the next morning to further con¬ 
sider the matter. I replied that I would meet them, but that 
there was no probability that anything looking toward a 
change in my plans could be brought about. Arriving the 
next morning at the place appointed for the interview, I 
was ushered into the presence of the entire official board of 
the Walnut Hills Church. The object of the interview was 
set forth: their invitation was unanimous and enthusiastic. 
I restated the situation, saying that inasmuch as I was prac¬ 
tically transferred to another Conference, I could not, even 
if I were disposed to do so, enter into their plan without first 
consulting the bishops in charge of the Conferences in¬ 
volved. The prompt reply was that they had already inter¬ 
viewed Bishop Foster, who would preside at the ensuing 
session of the Cincinnati Conference, and he had cordially 
approved of the proposed arrangement and agreed to take 
all the responsibility involved if I would consent to remain. 
The Cincinnati Preachers’ Meeting, having heard of the 
invitation that had been extended by the Walnut Hills 
Church, at its meeting that same morning, by a unanimous 
vote, requested me to reconsider my purpose to leave the 
Cincinnati Conference. The result was that I remained at 
Saint John’s until the following September, when I entered 
upon the pastorate of Walnut Hills Church. 

The Woman's Crusade 

It was during my pastorate at Saint John’s that the 
Woman’s Crusade made its appearance in Cincinnati. This 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 67 

remarkable movement originated at Hillsboro, Ohio, Decem¬ 
ber 23, 1873, and made its way to Madisonville, on the 
northern border of Cincinnati, in the spring of 1874, where 
it halted several weeks. The question was often asked, 
“Will the crusaders attack the city, the stronghold of the 
rum power?” Suddenly it appeared in the heart of the 
city. A company of women marched out of Wesley Chapel 
and took a position in front of a saloon on Fifth Street and 
commenced a prayer meeting. A few minutes later they 
were arrested by the police by order of the mayor and 
marched to the city prison. I marched with them—on the 
opposite side of the street. The women entered the prison 
singing, “All hail the power of Jesus’ name.” Then they 
sang, “Rock of Ages; cleft for me,” and bowed in prayer. 
I had found a place in the gallery, and as I listened I thought 
of Paul and Silas in prison at Philippi and wondered 
whether there might not be another earthquake. It seemed 
to me that it was a good time for another such event. The 
police judge sat in his chair and looked wise as an owl. Not 
knowing what to do, he sent for the mayor, who soon 
occupied a chair by the side of the judge. Then there were 
two owls. They consulted together quite a while. Night 
was approaching and something must be done. If the 
women had belonged to the underworld, the judge and 
mayor would have known what to do. They could have 
locked them up in cells, to await trial the next day. But 
these were women of the “upper world,” ranking with the 
best in the city. Some of them had husbands and children 
in their homes and all had warm friends. To lock them up 
would have put the prison itself into jeopardy. At length, 
they said to the women: “You are dismissed on your own 
recognizance and you are ordered to appear before the police 
court at two o’clock p. m., to-morrow.” The next day 


68 


THE STONE OF HELP 


they appeared in the police court, as ordered, and through 
the advice of a lawyer, who had no sympathy with the 
crusade, the women promised to appear no more on the 
streets as crusaders, and they were released. However, the 
stopping of the crusade did not end the movement, for out 
of it came the organization of the Woman’s Christian Tem¬ 
perance Union, which has now belted the globe with white- 
ribbon unions, and is increasingly a power for the over¬ 
throw of the rum traffic the world round. 


CHAPTER IX 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 
(continued) 

Walnut Hills Pastorate 

While Dr. W. L. Hypes, my immediate predecessor, had 
been pastor at Walnut Hills a new, commodious church 
edifice had been completed and dedicated and a well- 
arranged, comfortable parsonage had been erected and sup¬ 
plied with necessary furniture. 

In the previous year there had been quite an extensive 
revival, resulting in a considerable increase in the member¬ 
ship and promotion of the spiritual life of the church. There 
was not a note of discord in either the official board or the 
congregation, and the spirit of aggressive cooperation pre¬ 
vailed in all departments of church activity, and was main¬ 
tained during my pastorate of three years. 

A Battle for Life 

In March, 1876, in the middle of my pastoral term, I 
was stricken with typhoid pneumonia and passed through 
the greatest physical battle of my life. For more than two 
months my life was in the balance, with all the chances 
apparently against me. The doctors said I would probably 
die. Only my brave, devoted wife believed that I would 
live, and in that belief she never for one moment wavered. 
Not once did she betray a doubt, and her courage and hope¬ 
ful words were most encouraging and stimulating. After 

69 


70 


THE STONE OF HELP 


the battle was won she said that when the doctors told her 
there was no hope she appealed anew to the Lord, who told 
her to be of good courage, her husband would live. 

In that great struggle I tested the value of the Christian 
religion which for sixteen years I had been proclaiming to 
the world. My mind was clear and I watched the progress 
of the struggle with keenest interest. I did not pretend to 
know what the outcome would be, but there was one glori¬ 
ous thing that I did know—I was ready to go or stay. 
There was not a doubt in my heart nor a cloud in my sky. I 
had recently read in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress a descrip¬ 
tion of the “valley of the shadow of death,” which was full 
of horrors, and I said that Bunyan had not been in this 
valley or he would have described it differently. To me it 
was flooded with a beautiful, mellow light. Nor was it 
bordered by a dark, troubled river of death, but it was, 
rather, a splendid region, which seemed to be separated 
from the more glorious region beyond only by a thin veil. 
It occurred to my ravished heart that the beautiful city was 
so near that I might hear voices, and I listened, but no voices 
broke the sacred stillness. Some will say that it was hallu¬ 
cination, resulting from physical weakness and an over¬ 
wrought imagination. To me, however, it was a sublime 
reality. I was not asleep and dreaming. Nor was I out 
of my mind. I was wide awake and was certain that if the 
veil should be lifted or parted, I would pass into the beauti¬ 
ful city “whose maker and builder is God,” without the loss 
of consciousness for a single moment. That experience 
changed all my thoughts about dying. To one who is ready 
it is a most beautiful and blessed experience, marking the 
transition from time to eternity, from earth to heaven. At 
length the crisis passed, and I began to slowly return to 
health. The struggle upward toward health was far longer 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


7i 


and harder than the descent had been. But how shall I 
appropriately write of the sympathy, generosity, and prac¬ 
tical helpfulness extended so lavishly to myself and family 
by the Walnut Hills people during so long a period of suffer¬ 
ing and uncertainty? Their attention to the parsonage 
family was constant and beautiful. Every need was antici¬ 
pated and generously supplied. By day and by night there 
were voluntary attendants at my bedside. As soon as I 
could be taken out a carriage was at my door daily at an 
appointed hour, in which I was placed by strong hands and 
then driven over the best roads for change and fresh air, 
after which I was carried back again to a room that had 
been thoroughly ventilated and purified. With greatest 
pleasure I place on record, after a lapse of thirty-seven 
years, my high appreciation of the friendship and profes¬ 
sional skill of Dr. I. D. Jones, who was not only my physi¬ 
cian, but at the most critical time, my nurse by day and by 
night, and to whom, under the blessing of God, I was largely 
indebted for restoration to health. 

For nine months I was absent from the pulpit of the 
church, which was supplied at the people’s expense, and 
probably when no one expected that I would ever preach 
again, the Quarterly Conference, by a unanimous vote, re¬ 
quested my return for the third year, which was then the 
limit of continuous pastoral service. That invitation gave 
me a new inspiration toward recovery and greatly reenforced 
my physician’s prescriptions. 

No king ever ascended a throne with greater joy than 
was mine when, on a November Sabbath morning in 1876, 
I ascended my pulpit after an absence of about nine months. 
There are but few people now in that church who were 
members during my pastorate, but those that are there are 
the successors of as loyal and noble a band of men and 


72 


THE STONE OF HELP 


women as ever constituted the membership of a Methodist 
Episcopal Church in any land, and it is enshrined in my 
heart’s deepest love forever. 

Grace Church, Dayton 

The Cincinnati Conference met in Xenia in 1877, under 
the presidency of Bishop Gilbert Haven, who, upon the invi¬ 
tation of the Quarterly Conference, appointed me to Grace 
Church, Dayton, where Dr. Thomas H. Pearne had been 
the successful pastor during the previous three years. The 
church was one of the best in the Conference, and was in 
location, architecture, and equipment all that could be de¬ 
sired. The population of Dayton was about fifty thousand, 
and it was known as the “Gem City” of Ohio. There were 
at that time four Methodist Episcopal Churches in the city 
—Grace, Raper, Sears Street, and Ebenezer. Having quite 
fully recovered from my serious illness of the previous year, 
I entered upon my work under many favorable circum¬ 
stances and with encouraging prospects for a good degree 
of success, in which I was not disappointed. Within the 
first four months I passed through an experience which I 
recall with special interest. I very soon learned that in what 
was known as “society” there was at full tide a “craze” for 
the social amusement called the dance, which was indulged, 
not only in parlors and drawing rooms, but also in public 
places. For the purpose of a more popular indulgence of 
this particular amusement an organization had been effected 
known as the “Assembly,” and a suite of rooms in a central 
part of the city had been elegantly furnished and were 
occupied frequently by society people for the exhilaration 
and excitement of their favorite amusement. From ob¬ 
servation and information obtained from pastors and 
spiritually minded church members, I learned that this 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


73 


amusement was highly detrimental to the religious life of 
the young people of all the churches and to family religious 
life as well. 

A Ministerial Association had been formed, of which 
all pastors were members, and which held a meeting every 
Monday morning for mutual improvement, before which I 
was requested to present a paper with the privilege of choos¬ 
ing my subject. To draw out the views of the pastors and 
to ascertain whether concerted action could be projected to 
mitigate the evil, I chose for my subject, The Modern Dance. 

The pastors present, representing several denominations, 
gave the paper a hearty indorsement and requested its 
publication in the two daily papers of the city. They also 
appointed a committee on publication with instruction to 
prepare an introductory note, to be signed by all, and to have 
a large number of copies printed for free distribution. The 
publication of the paper produced a profound sensation. 
Many approved, while many were incensed and indignant. 
Through the daily press I was denounced in heated terms as 
a disturber of the peace of society life. The Assembly 
people were wrought up almost to a state of frenzy. One 
week later I announced for a Sabbath evening theme, “The 
Modern Dance.” 

The evening came and Grace Church was packed to the 
limit. In the discourse I defended the views contained in 
the paper that had so stirred the city, and stated clearly the 
attitude of the Methodist Episcopal Church on amusements 
in general and the dance in particular, as that question was 

in the foreground at that particular time. Brother - 

and wife, in whose home the dance was to be given, were 
present, and they listened with manifest interest. I stated 
that membership in the church is voluntary. It does not 
follow that once a Methodist always a Methodist. The 



74 


THE STONE OF HELP 


church is not a prison. Its door is not locked. One who 
finds himself out of harmony with its terms of membership 
or doctrine may withdraw. There are plenty of churches 
that will receive you and allow you to dance at your pleas¬ 
ure, but if you remain in the Methodist Episcopal Church 
you are in honor bound to obey its laws and conform to its 
usages. 

The Mount Vernon Ball 

The Assembly people now made a special effort to regain 
their impaired prestige by projecting plans for a public 
entertainment called the Mount Vernon Ball. In Wash¬ 
ington’s mansion, at Mount Vernon, Virginia, there is a 
room named for Ohio which was cared for by an association 
of Ohio women, the president of which resided in Dayton. 
The Mount Vernon Ball was designed to provide funds for 
refitting the Ohio Room. The opera house was converted 
into a great ballroom. Tickets were placed on the social 
market. The daily papers gave ample space for advertising 
and editorially urged the people to patronize the ball as a 
patriotic duty. I announced as my topic for the Sabbath 
evening previous what was to be the great social event of 
the ensuing week, “The Mount Vernon Ball.” The crowd 
was immense, and the preacher had liberty. The ball came 
off, but was a dismal social event and a financial failure. 
When the bills were paid there was a deficit of fifty dollars. 
The results were that the suite of rooms were given up and 
the Assembly was dissolved. 

The “tango” and the “turkey trot” of 1914 are the de¬ 
scendants of the “round dance” of 1877, and all of the same 
moral quality—“unclean and cannot be washed.” A New 
York physical director is reported to have said: “The tango 
leads to reversion to type and savagery. It is the human 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


75 

race returning to the barbaric revels of our half-wild ances¬ 
tors. It is the law of evolution turned back upon itself.” 

A Noted Visitor 

In the second year of my pastorate the celebrated agnostic 
Colonel Ingersoll visited Dayton and delivered his lecture 
on “The Mistakes of Moses.” I thought that I ought not 
to allow a wolf to prowl in my fold without keeping an eye 
on him, and so I purchased a ticket and attended. I ex¬ 
pected to see the opera house crowded, but the attendance 
was quite small. The main floor was only about half full 
and there were about a dozen or less in the gallery. The 
majority of those present were in harmony with the 
Colonel’s views. The lecture was from first to last a 
horrible caricature of the Bible. Dr. Buckley has recently 
very pertinently described the Colonel as he appeared that 
night: “Though as a reasoner he did not rank in the highest 
class, he did so as an orator. In his speeches against the 
Bible he would swing a crowd by the utterance of irrever¬ 
ences that no true Christian would touch. Colonel Ingersoll 
had an almost insane hatred for the Bible and could set a 
promiscuous audience in a roar of laughter by his grotesque 
references to parts of the New Testament which are dearest 
to the Christian, whether Protestant or Roman Catholic.” 
Dr. Kelley, editor of the Methodist Review, has recently 
described him as “the peripatetic, rhetorical, platform 
scoffer, the thrifty professional blasphemer.” I took notes 
of all his points and announced as my theme for the follow¬ 
ing Sabbath evening, “The Mistakes of Ingersoll.” The 
audience was limited only by the capacity of the church, 
and there were quite a number present who had heard the 
lecture under review, some of whom came to the chancel 
at the close of the address and thanked me for the satisfac- 


THE STONE OF HELP 


76 

tory answer I had made. The following was the peroration 
of the ColoneFs oration: “Some one will ask me whence I 
came and whither I am going. I do not know whence I 
came and I do not know whither I am going. I am out on 
a wide sea, sailing on a great ship. I know only a few of 
the passengers and I have no acquaintance with either the 
pilot or the captain. If this ship goes down in midocean, I 
will go down with it, but if it rounds into a beautiful harbor, 
I’ll be there.” 

The following was my peroration after quoting the 
above: “If you ask me whence I came and whither I am 
going, I answer I belong to a God-created race, that came 
out of the Garden of Eden, and I am going to the city that 
hath foundation, whose maker and builder is God. I too am 
sailing in a great ship, the old ship ‘Zion. 5 I am acquainted 
with many of the passengers and they are splendid people. 
But, best of all, I am acquainted with the pilot and captain, 
Jesus Christ, my Lord. This ship will not go down in mid¬ 
ocean, but it will round into a beautiful harbor, and I’ll be 
there, and all on board will sing: 

“Into the harbor of heaven now we glide; 

We’re home at last, home at last; 

Softly we drift on its bright silver tide, 

We’re home at last, home at last: 

Glory to God 1 all our dangers are o’er: 

Glory to God 1 we will shout ever more. 

We’re home at lastl Home at last I” 


CHAPTER X 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 
(continued) 

Appointed Presiding Elder 

Notwithstanding the fact that I was invited to return 
to Grace Church for the third year by the Quarterly Confer¬ 
ence without a dissenting vote, I was appointed presiding 
elder of the East Cincinnati District by Bishop Simpson at 
the close of the Cincinnati Conference, held in Grace Church, 
Urbana, September 3, 1879. The district included one half 
of Cincinnati and extended along the Little Miami Valley 
in a northeasterly direction to Xenia, a distance of about 
sixty miles, and contained eighteen pastoral charges. 

My plan, which was followed for four years, was to visit 
each pastoral charge on the first and fourth rounds, preach 
once (sometimes twice) on Saturday, hold the Quarterly 
Conference, and on Sabbath morning hold the love feast, 
preach and administer the Lord’s Supper, and preach again 
in the late afternoon or evening. The second and third 
rounds I held all the Quarterly Conferences and preached 
where I seemed to be most needed. During the fall and 
winter season, I aided the pastors as far as possible in re¬ 
vival services, many of which were very successful. At that 
time the Loveland Camp Meeting was a center of large reli¬ 
gious interest. At the camp meeting in 1881 the evangelist 
Thomas Harrison was in charge of the evangelistic services, 
and there were many conversions. January 11, 1882, 

77 


THE STONE OF HELP 


78 

Brother Harrison commenced a series of revival meetings 
in Saint Paul’s Church, Cincinnati, of which Dr. I. W. 
Joyce was pastor. 


A Great Revival 

The revival meetings were marvelously successful and 
made a profound impression on the city and surrounding 
country. Ministers and laymen, from not only Ohio, but 
also Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois, visited Cin¬ 
cinnati to witness and participate in the revival services. 
Some of these returned to their homes flaming torches, that 
kindled revival fires in their respective churches and com¬ 
munities. At a Social Union in Boston Bishop Foster said, 
while the revival was in progress: “The great revival in 
Cincinnati is by an instrument, feeble but mighty through 
God, who has shaken that city, dead with seven deaths, to 
its foundation. A thousand souls have been converted in 
these six weeks, all the churches are on fire, and the most 
careful judges regard the work sound through and through.” 

While on the East Cincinnati District Dr. William 
Runyan was serving the West Cincinnati District, and our 
cooperation in all that pertained to the interests of the 
church in the city as a whole was complete and cordial. 
What a noble man of God he was! Our friendship was 
personal, mutual, and intimate. I never knew him to per¬ 
form an act that was detrimental to the interest of a brother 
minister or anyone else. He lived an unselfish, devoted 
Christian life, and suddenly he was not, for God had taken 
him. 


Constitutional Prohibition Campaign 

In the latter part of the Conference year 1882-83 there 
was a campaign in Ohio for Statewide constitutional prohi- 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


79 

bition, in which it was my privilege to take an active part. 
Without neglecting the work on the district, I canvassed 
southwestern Ohio pretty widely in favor of the amend¬ 
ment. There was no doubt in the minds of honest people 
that the amendment had a good majority in the State as 
a whole, but it was wickedly counted out in a few centers 
where the liquor element was in charge of the ballot boxes. 
In the centers the returns were held back until the rural 
vote was known and then sufficient additions were made to 
overbalance the total prohibition vote. There was not a 
reasonable doubt that constitutional prohibition was de¬ 
feated by fraud in Ohio in 1883. 

Central Church,, Springfield 

The Cincinnati Conference held its annual session in 
Hamilton in September, 1883, Bishop R. S. Foster presid¬ 
ing. The bishop had just returned from a visit to our mis¬ 
sions in India and was in fine health and spirits. His sermon 
on Conference Sunday on the text, “What is man that thou 
art mindful of him?” (Psa. 8. 4) can never be forgotten 
by those who were privileged to hear it. I have heard many 
great sermons and do not discount any of them by saying 
that Bishop Foster’s sermon on that Sabbath morning was 
the greatest of all. Although it was two hours long, no one 
would have wished it shorter by a single moment. The 
peroration was the climax of all that had preceded and was 
overwhelming. Straightening himself to his full height 
and casting his eyes upward, he said: “David, do you ask, 
'What is man?’ I will tell you.” Then in one paragraph he 
summarized the points he had made with tremendous power, 
and ended with “That is man!” The great congregation 
was brought to its feet and hallelujahs leaped from many 
lips. 


8o 


THE STONE OF HELP 


At this Conference I was for the first time elected a 
delegate to the General Conference, which met in Phila¬ 
delphia in May, 1884. The delegates were: Ministerial: 
John M. Walden, Adna B. Leonard, Charles H. Payne, 
William Runyan; Lay: Phineas P. Mast, John W. Dale. 
At the close of the Conference session, in response to the 
request of the Quarterly Conference, I was appointed to the 
pastorate of Central Church, Springfield, where I spent 
what were to me three eventful years. My predecessor was 
the Rev. C. W. Ketcham, D.D., under whose ministry the 
church had been prosperous. During the first winter a 
series of successful revival services were held and there were 
numerous additions to the membership. During my pas¬ 
torate of three years revival methods were followed in the 
Sunday school, young people’s meetings, weekly prayer 
meetings, and public services. At intervals there were 
special seasons of revival and the membership, including 
probationers, rose from five hundred and ninety to eight 
hundred and five. 

My First General Conference 

In May, 1884, I had my first experience as a member of 
General Conference. I had had the privilege of spending 
almost two weeks as a visitor to the General Conference 
held in Brooklyn, New York, in 1872, and was a daily 
attendant of the one held in Cincinnati in 1880, though not 
a member, and having been a deeply interested reader of 
the General Conference proceedings from the time I entered 
the ministry in i860, I was somewhat familiar with the 
rules and methods of that distinguished body. And now, 
after having been a member of eight consecutive General 
Conferences, and having given some attention to like bodies, 
religious and secular, I venture to say that there is no legis- 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


81 


lative body on the planet that transacts so large a volume 
of business in the same period of time, or that conducts its 
business in a more orderly manner. 

There is a somewhat widespread opinion that members 
of the General Conference to a large extent follow question¬ 
able political methods to bring about desired results, par¬ 
ticularly in the election of bishops and other officials. After 
having been an active participant in all the General Con¬ 
ferences from 1884 to 1912, with special pleasure I record 
the fact that I have but very rarely known of political 
methods being followed that were not wholly honorable and 
creditable and above suspicion in moral quality, nor have I 
known of results achieved that were not honorable to all 
concerned and designed for the best interests of the church 
as a whole. 

Having been closely identified with the prohibition cam¬ 
paign in Ohio the year previous, I was placed upon the 
standing committee on “Temperance and Constitutional 
Prohibition,” and it fell to my lot to draw up the report 
which was adopted by the Conference. In that report there 
is a paragraph which has probably been more frequently 
approved in letter or in substance by Annual Conferences 
than any other deliverance of that or any subsequent Gen¬ 
eral Conference: “We are unalterably opposed to the enact¬ 
ment of laws that propose by license, taxing, or otherwise 
to regulate the drink traffic, because they provide for its 
continuance and afford no protection against its ravages. 
We hold that the proper attitude of Christians toward the 
traffic is one of uncompromising opposition, and while we 
do not presume to dictate to our people, as to their political 
affiliations, we do express the opinion that they should not 
permit themselves to be controlled by party organizations 
that are managed in the interest of the liquor traffic.” This 


82 


THE STONE OF HELP 


paragraph in language or substance has been repeated by 
every General Conference since its adoption at Philadelphia. 

Ohio Prohibition Campaign 

The political campaign of 1884, when James G. Blaine 
(Republican), Grover Cleveland (Democrat), and John P. 
St. John (Prohibition) were candidates for the Presidency 
of the United States, was probably the most intense and 
exciting ever waged for that great office. The contest was 
not only political but personal. Against the character of 
each of the candidates various unsavory rumors were circu¬ 
lated. The chances for the Republican and Democratic 
candidates were so nearly balanced that much depended 
upon whether the Prohibition candidate would draw more 
largely upon the former or the latter. It was several days 
after the election before the final decision was reached and 
Grover Cleveland was declared elected. The Prohibition 
party was blamed for the defeat of Blaine on the ground that 
it drew a sufficient number of votes from the Republican 
party in the State of New York to give its electoral vote to 
the Democrats. Having campaigned with St. John, I was 
bitterly assailed for having contributed to the defeat of the 
Republican candidate. Personally I had no preference be¬ 
tween the two old-party candidates, but I was exceedingly 
anxious that the candidate of the Prohibition party should 
have a vote large enough to make the liquor traffic a national 
issue, a position it then attained and has maintained until 
the present, with the prospect that it will be the supreme 
issue in the form of a national constitutional amendment in 
the near future. 

The importance of the greatly increased prohibition vote 
in the national campaign of 1884 was seen in the impetus 
it gave to State campaigns in 1885. Early in the year just 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 83 

named letters reached me from different parts of the State 
asking whether I would allow my name to be placed at the 
head of the Prohibition party ticket for the ensuing cam¬ 
paign, and to all I returned a negative answer. The pressure 
increased, and it became so great that I found it important 
to go to Cleveland for the sole purpose of impressing upon 
the chairman of the State Executive Committee the im¬ 
practicability of acceptance of the nomination should it be 
tendered, and requested him to inform all county committees 
and other inquirers that I could not permit my name to be 
considered. The State chairman requested me to serve as 
temporary chairman of the State convention and deliver 
what was termed the “keynote” address. The convention 
met in Springfield, where I was pastor, July 1, 1885. 

On the previous evening I was requested to meet a few 
of the party leaders in a hotel parlor to consult, as I sup¬ 
posed, in regard to the program to be followed the next 
day. To my surprise, the matter to be considered was, 
“Who shall be placed at the head of the ticket?” There 
were probably twenty-five' or thirty persons present repre¬ 
senting practically all parts of the State. One after another 
declared that there was only one name mentioned in the 
localities they represented respectively, and that name was 
A. B. Leonard. After an hour had been spent in informal 
conversation, it was suggested that a season of prayer would 
be appropriate, and Mr. Horace Waters, of New York, 
who had come as a visitor to the Convention, offered a 
simple, devout, earnest prayer for divine guidance in the 
selection of a candidate. As the prayer was ascending to 
the Lord of all, a solemn conviction came into my soul that 
that difficult and important responsibility would probably 
be thrust upon me. When the prayer was ended I returned 
to my home to spend a sleepless night. The following day 


THE STONE OF HELP 


84 

I delivered the opening address and presided until a per¬ 
manent organization of the convention was effected. 

Another restless night followed, and as I was leaving my 
home the next morning, for the convention hall, my wife 
said: “You seem to be in trouble. Is anything burdening 
your mind?” I answered: “Yes, this convention seems to 
be bent on placing my name at the head of the list of candi¬ 
dates to be nominated. What shall I do?” In her quiet, 
gentle way, she inquired, “Have you a conviction in regard 
to your duty?” I answered: “That’s the trouble. There 
has come into my soul a conviction that I ought not to 
refuse.” And she replied, “You had better follow your 
conviction no matter what the cost.” 

Nominated for Governor 

It was on July 2, 1885, that I was unanimously and with 
great enthusiasm nominated for governor of Ohio by the 
Prohibition party, and under a profound conviction of duty 
the nomination was accepted. On that day I buried every 
ambition I had ever cherished in as deep a grave as was 
ever dug. Brethren beloved in the ministry, whose friend¬ 
ship I could not doubt, said: “You have made a mistake, 
from the effect of which you can never recover. The best 
pulpits in the Methodist Episcopal Church were possible 
to you, but they are closed now; official and ecclesiastical 
honors awaited you, but they are impossible now.” To 
which I replied: “So I understand it. I have counted the 
cost and have taken this step thoughtfully, deliberately, and 
prayerfully, and am willing to accept the consequences, 
whatever they may involve. I ask for no reward except 
the consciousness of having done my duty, and without fear 
or favor I will put my best into this fight.” And I did. 
No man can be at his best who has a selfish or unworthy 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 85 

ambition in view. Having no expectation of being elected 
governor of Ohio, and refusing to receive any reward for 
service rendered, I had but one ambition and that was to help 
forward the movement for the extermination of the drink 
traffic in Ohio and in the nation. I was aware, to some 
extent at least, of the calumny and abuse that would be 
poured upon me, but its full measure I did not know. 
Though a total abstainer, I was advertised by a partisan 
pro-whisky press as a winebibber and a drunkard. 

Attack on Central Church 

A wicked attempt was made to disrupt Central Church, 
of which I was pastor. The Fourth Quarterly Conference 
had already, by a unanimous vote, invited my return for the 
third year; but it was at once widely circulated that the 
official board at its next regular meeting would advise 
against my continuance. When the meeting came there was 
a full attendance. At the front door of the church there 
was a bevy of newspaper reporters awaiting the news. 
When the usual business had been transacted and miscel¬ 
laneous items were in order, one of the leading members 
arose and called attention to the rumors that were afloat, and 
then read a preamble and resolution reaffirming the action 
that had been taken by the Quarterly Conference, which was 
adopted without a dissenting vote. The news having been 
given to the reporters at the door, they scattered, a disap¬ 
pointed lot. The reporter for the Cincinnati Commercial 
Gazette made a report that was so untruthful and misleading 
as to make it necessary for the secretary of the official board 
to send a copy of the action taken to the editor of that 
paper, with an urgent request that it be printed in full, which 
was done. I can never repay that grand old church for its 
enthusiastic support in that crucial epoch in my life. I do 


86 


THE STONE OF HELP 


not advise young ministers to accept nominations at the 
hands of political parties, but there may be exceptional cir¬ 
cumstances making it necessary, if one would respond to 
the demands of a great cause and to the best impulses of his 
own nature. 

Conference Fellowship 

The fellowship I have enjoyed in the Cincinnati Con¬ 
ference, now merged into the West Ohio Conference, will 
always be cherished with tender affection. Forty-one years 
ago that fellowship began and it remained undisturbed until 
that Conference, as such, ceased to exist. My brethren have 
honored me far beyond my deserving, and I would be an 
ingrate if I did not appreciate and acknowledge their gener¬ 
ous appreciation. Eight times in succession they elected me 
one of their representatives to the General Conference, and 
not once on a second ballot. Six times they placed my name 
at the head of the list of ministerial delegates, when there 
were brethren on and off the list far more worthy of such 
distinction. But I never suppressed my convictions to secure 
their favor, nor did I ever solicit the vote or influence of 
any brother. If I had done so, they would have rightly 
despised rather than honored me. On important questions 
we occasionally differed, sometimes sharply, but not to the 
loss of mutual esteem and brotherly affection. Personally, 
I have made it a rule not to think the less of any man be¬ 
cause we do not see alike on important questions. Not in¬ 
frequently I have found that my opponent was right and I 
was wrong, and that was sufficient reason for treating his 
opinions with respect. 

Incidents of the Campaign 

The Executive Committee of the Prohibition party chal¬ 
lenged the candidates of the Republican and Democratic 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


87 

parties to a series of joint debates on the issues involved, but 
the candidate of the former, Hon. J. B. Foraker, positively 
declined, while the candidate of the latter, Governor Hoadly, 
consented to a tripartite discussion, but would not meet the 
Prohibition candidate in a dual debate. I was willing to 
meet either or both, but arrangements could not be made 
and consequently no joint discussion could be had. 

* * * * 

The Cincinnati Conference met, under the presidency of 
Bishop W. L. Harris, in the Walnut Hills Church, Cin¬ 
cinnati, when the campaign was at white heat. A partisan 
press, led by the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, had widely 
circulated a rumor that charges would be preferred against 
me and I would be placed on trial. What the charges would 
be was not specified, but it was supposed that they would 
be forthcoming under the question, “Was the character of 
each preacher examined ?” When my name was called there 
was breathless attention. My presiding elder, Dr. A. N. 
Spahr, a manly man of God, promptly responded, “Nothing 
against him.” I waited to see whether there was anybody 
who had anything “against him.” After a moment of silent 
expectancy, the bishop called my name the second time. I 
arose slowly, faced the Conference (and the crowd), and 
made my report. There was satisfaction on the part of my 
friends and disappointment on the part of my foes. 

After the standing committees were appointed it was sug¬ 
gested that a special committee be constituted on “The State 
of the Church,” and it was done. At the second morning’s 
session, the bishop held up a large envelope containing a 
paper which he suggested should be referred to the Commit¬ 
tee on the State of the Church, and the reference was made 
without reading. The committee made its report at the last 


88 


THE STONE OF HELP 


session of the Conference, and it contained a considerable 
amount of good advice, but there was one short paragraph 
which contained the crux of the whole matter, which was 
to the effect that the Conference could not approve of any 
one of its members becoming a candidate for political office 
or the advocate of a political party. Although my name 
was not mentioned, all knew to whom reference was made. 
Immediately the Rev. S. F. Conery was on his feet and 
moved to amend by striking out the paragraph above re¬ 
ferred to, and followed with a speech that moved the Con¬ 
ference profoundly. 

A member of the committee, who thought something must 
be said in its defense, told how “kindly the case of Dr. 
Leonard’' had been discussed, which greatly amused the 
Conference, as it was an admission that the criticism made 
by Brother Conery was well founded. Other speeches were 
made, but no one denied that the prohibition candidate was 
the one person to whom reference was made. While the 
discussion was proceeding, Bishop Harris beckoned me 
from his chair. When I approached, he asked whether I 
desired to speak. I replied that I did not propose to make 
a defense, but that I would like to make a statement. He 
said, “You shall have an opportunity.” When the oppor¬ 
tunity was afforded I said, in substance, that I had no 
apology or defense to offer for being a candidate for politi¬ 
cal office; that we had made too much history along that line 
to make such a course in order then. I proceeded to name 
several Methodist preachers who were then holding political 
offices against whom no complaint had been made; that 
there was a member of the Cincinnati Conference present 
who was once a candidate for the office of United States 
senator in a Western State, and had not been required to 
make a defense or apology before the Conference of which 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


89 


he was then a member. I further stated that I was in the 
campaign to stay until the last ballot was cast on election 
day. 

The vote was taken and the amendment carried by a good 
majority. Immediately a prominent member arose and said: 
“l move to lay the whole report on the table. You have 
taken everything out of it that was in it.” But the motion 
was lost and the pious part of the report was adopted. 

* * * * 

The Executive Committee of the Prohibition party ar¬ 
ranged for a mass meeting at the seat of each of the five 
Ohio Annual Conferences for 1885. The Central Ohio 
Conference met at Fostoria, the home of the late Governor 
Foster. Two interviews with the governor had been going 
the rounds of the press to which I decided to make 
answer in my Fostoria address. In one of these it was 
declared that I was lying about the Republican party in 
saying that it was in favor of the continuance of the liquor 
traffic, whereas the party had never made a deliverance on 
that question. “The traffic is here. The constitution for¬ 
bids a license; prohibition is impossible, and the only thing 
that can be done is to restrain and regulate the traffic and 
that the Republican party is pledged to do.” 

In the other interview with the Toledo Blade the governor 
said, substantially: “The Democrats will find it difficult to 
carry Lucas County [in which Toledo is located] this year, 
for the reason that the liquor dealers are becoming much 
dissatisfied with the Democratic party, which makes pledges 
but does not redeem its pledges. The Republican party has 
never made a pledge to the liquor dealers that it has not 
redeemed. The Republican party has been in power in the 
national government for twenty-five years, and during that 


90 


THE STONE OF HELP 


period the liquor traffic has had its greatest prosperity and 
the liquor dealers are beginning to think that their business 
is safer when the Republicans are in power than when the 
Democrats are in power.” 

I prepared a speech for the occasion that would include 
these interviews. The meeting was held in the opera house, 
which was packed to the doors. I did not know Governor 
Foster personally, but incidentally learned that he was in 
the house. Introductory to my address and with the object 
of drawing the governor out, I opened the way for free 
discussion by saying that I never allowed myself, however 
great the temptation, to make a statement that I did not 
have reason to believe was true; that if any one knew that 
any statement I might make on that occasion was false, I 
would count it a favor to be corrected and any one arising 
to make such correction should have a fair hearing. I fur¬ 
ther said that I had prepared a speech for the occasion, but 
it was not important that it should be delivered. No one 
should keep silence for fear of embarrassing me; my ma¬ 
chine ran just as well off the track as on, and if by any 
chance it should be derailed or damaged the loss would be 
mine. 

I first reviewed the history of the Democratic party in 
Ohio, showing how it had always truckled to the liquor 
dealers, by quoting platform planks, legislative acts, and 
statements of party leaders, and challenged contradictions, 
but there was no response. I then turned to the history of 
the Republican party and reviewed it along the same lines. 
Coming to the attitude of the party toward the liquor traffic, 
I declared it to be as follows: “The Republican party is in 
favor of the continuance of the liquor traffic under a taxing 
law, and such taxing law as will meet the approval of the 
liquor dealers.” This declaration was made to meet the 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


9 i 


first interview as outlined above. I challenged contradic¬ 
tion, but there was no response. I repeated the declaration, 
and again there was silence. I then became somewhat 
aggressive and said: “There is probably some one here 
to-night who will say to-morrow, ‘Leonard was at his old 
trick again—lying about the Republican party/ If I am 
lying, this is the time to show me up and administer a de¬ 
served rebuke. Any coward can accuse me to-morrow of 
lying. No courage will be needed to do that. Set me 
straight here and now, or hereafter hold your peace/’ A 
man in the audience arose and I recognized him at once. He 
did not announce his name, but a preacher near me said in 
an undertone, “That is Governor Foster.” 

He said, “You do not state the Republican party attitude 
fairly.” 

I said: “Will you be so kind as to state it, sir?” 

He replied in substance as above, and his friends cheered 
him lustily. 

I said, “I will put the question in another form: Is the 
Republican party in Ohio in favor of prohibiting the liquor 
traffic?” 

He stood for a moment as though a bit confused, and 
then said, “No, sir, it is not.” 

I replied, “If it is not in favor of prohibiting, it is in 
favor of continuance, is it not?” 

He made no reply. 

“It is in favor of continuance under such a taxing law 
as will meet the approval of the liquor dealers, is it not?” 
and without answering he resumed his seat. I said: “By 
your silence you admit that my statement is true and that 
yours is false—that is to say, the Republican party in Ohio 
is in favor of the continuance of the liquor traffic under a 
taxing law, such as will meet the approval of the liquor 


92 


THE STONE OF HELP 


dealers.” I then added, “I now state, upon the authority 
of your own eminent citizen ex-Governor Foster, that the 
liquor dealers can more safely trust the Republican party 
than the Democratic party.” 

Instantly Governor Foster was on his feet again, and with 
intense earnestness he said: “I am the party you have just 
named. Your statement ascribed to myself is false and 
slanderous.” 

The excitement in the audience was intense, as it was 
evident that a question of veracity was to be settled. I 
replied: “If my memory is not at fault, I have seen such a 
statement attributed to yourself in the public press. Do you 
deny having made it?” 

He again flatly denied it. 

I said, “I am very certain that I have not originated this 
statement.” Then, addressing him directly, I said: “You 
have now had a little time to reflect. Do you intend to deny 
here in the presence of your fellow citizens that you have 
ever uttered such words?” 

He again gave a positive denial, and asserted that my 
statement was false and slanderous. 

I then said, “I have an interview of yours with a reporter 
of the Toledo Blade, which I will read.” I then read the 
second interview as given above. Addressing him, I asked, 
“Are you the author of this interview?” 

After a moment’s silence, he replied: “Yes, sir, every 
word of it.” The Prohibitionists and Democrats broke into 
tremendous applause, while the friends of the governor were 
mute with disappointment. When quiet was restored he 
said: “I am sorry I have had anything to do with this matter 
to-night. I will take my seat and not interrupt the speaker 
further.” 

I replied: “You have not interrupted the speaker. This 


ITINERANT EXPERIENCES 


93 


is just what he has been fishing for; but probably no one 
will call in question your confession that you are sorry you 
have had anything to do with this matter.” I then said that 
being a preacher, I was fond of a text and proceeded to 
take up the interview item by item, to show that the gov¬ 
ernor had simply told the truth. The foregoing are a few 
of the interesting incidents of the campaign, and the number 
might be increased, but space will not permit. 

Growth of Prohibition Sentiment 

Since 1885 there has been a great increase of the prohibi¬ 
tion sentiment, not only in Ohio but throughout the land. 
The growth of this sentiment has been promoted by the 
Christian Church, the Prohibition party, the Woman’s 
Christian Temperance Union, and the Anti-Saloon League. 
Now all these agencies are uniting in a campaign for nation¬ 
wide prohibition through an amendment to the federal Con¬ 
stitution, which shall forever render illegal through the 
territory of the United States the manufacture, sale, im¬ 
portation, exportation, and transportation of intoxicating 
liquors to be used for beverage purposes. 

The slogan now is, “On to Washington!” and the pro¬ 
posed amendment is ably advocated in both houses of 
Congress. No longer can it be said that the alcoholic liquor 
question is local—it is now national. Not until national 
constitutional prohibition is a fact will the question be 
finally and forever settled. 

Green Street, Piqua 

My pastoral term of three years terminated at Central 
Church, Springfield, September, 1886. Considerable in¬ 
terest, far from friendly, was manifested by the secular 
press in regard to my next appointment. It was said that 


94 


THE STONE OF HELP 


my political record during the campaign of 1885 was such 
as to make me undesirable anywhere. The Cincinnati Con¬ 
ference held its annual session that year in Green Street 
Church, Piqua, whose pastor was at the end of his term. 
The secular papers reported that I was scheming for ap¬ 
pointment to that church, notwithstanding the fact that I 
had neither spoken nor written a word to anyone about it. 
However, it came about that I was invited to two churches, 
of which Green Street was one. Bishop Walden, who was 
presiding, requested me to choose between the two, which 
I declined to do, adding that he could not give me an ap¬ 
pointment that I would not take, and that without grumbling 
or complaint. The appointment was made and I entered 
promptly upon my pastoral duties. My predecessor, the 
Rev. A. Bowers, left the church in excellent condition. The 
official board was made up of strong men and was harmoni¬ 
ous, as was the membership of the church. The following 
spring and summer a commodious parsonage was erected 
and furnished, the cost of which was promptly and amply 
provided for. 

At the Conference of 1887 I was elected a second time 
a delegate to the General Conference, held in New York in 
May, 1888. During the winter of 1887-88 a series of 
revival services were conducted with excellent results, and 
every department of church activity was most encouraging. 
Of the eleven pastorates it has been my privilege to serve 
none were more successful or enjoyable than the year and 
a half spent at Green Street, Piqua. 

Here my pastoral experiences ended and I entered upon 
a wider itinerancy in which the world was my parish. 


CHAPTER XI 


AN UNEXPECTED EVENT 

There is a saying that it is the unexpected that happens. 
Surely, it was to me the unexpected that happened when I 
was elected a corresponding secretary of the Missionary 
Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, by the General 
Conference, held in New York city in May, 1888. When 
I first learned that my name was being mentioned in con¬ 
nection with that, office I did not regard it seriously or 
hopefully, but as a complimentary expression of personal 
friends. The day previous to the election of missionary 
secretaries Dr. John C. Ridpath, the historian, a lay delegate 
from the Northwest Indiana Conference, said, “I want the 
privilege and honor of presenting your name to the Con¬ 
ference as a candidate for missionary secretary,” and when 
the time for nominations came he presented my name. On 
the first ballot, C. C. McCabe was elected, and on the second 
J. O. Peck and A. B. Leonard. 

Entering upon the office to which I had been so unex¬ 
pectedly elected, I found myself in complete sympathy with 
the work, but quite limited in my preparation for the duties 
involved. As pastor and presiding elder I had always taken 
a deep interest in the missionary work of the church at 
home and abroad, and I had tried to keep myself and the 
people I served abreast of the movements of our church in 
both fields. For many years I had held a missionary prayer 
meeting monthly in my pastoral charges and as presiding 

95 


96 


THE STONE OF HELP 


elder had done what I could to stimulate the missionary 
spirit among preachers and people. In the churches I had 
served the annual missionary Sabbath had been regarded 
as the great day of the year. For a month the cause of 
missions had been the theme in the weekly prayer meeting, 
and the people were urged to prepare for the privilege and 
duty of giving. Missionary literature was provided and 
distributed. The Sabbath previous to Missionary Day a 
preparatory sermon was preached and the final announce¬ 
ment made. The people were reminded that every Sabbath 
morning they had joined with the pastor in praying, “Thy 
kingdom come; thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” 
We must either cease offering that prayer or we must do 
what we can to bring about the result prayed for. They 
were exhorted to look forward to the following Sabbath as 
a day of special privilege and allow nothing to keep them 
at home that was not absolutely prohibitive. The Sunday 
school was carefully cultivated through monthly missionary 
exercises and offerings. As a rule, the annual missionary 
offerings increased, sometimes even doubled, during a pas¬ 
toral term and all the benevolences of the church were 
largely advanced. 


My Colleagues 

I was particularly fortunate in the two splendid men with 
whom I was to be associated—Charles C. McCabe, D.D., 
and Jonas Ormal Peck, D.D. Dr. McCabe had become 
famous as a chaplain in the Union army and a prisoner in 
Libby Prison. His “Bright Side of Life in Libby Prison” 
was one of the most popular lectures ever delivered from an 
American platform, and was more frequently heard than 
any other. He had been assistant secretary to Dr. A. J. 
Kynett in the Board of Church Extension for several years 


AN UNEXPECTED EVENT 


97 


and popularized that institution throughout the entire 
church. Immediately after his election as corresponding 
secretary of the Missionary Society he flung out the slogan, 
“A million for missions/’ which, though sharply criticized 
by many at first as being fanatical and impossible, was soon 
taken up and echoed from pulpits and pews everywhere, and 
the goal was reached in 1887. The income of the Mission¬ 
ary Society in 1884 was $731,125.86, and many thought 
that the limit had been reached. An increase of $268,874.14 
in three years surprised and greatly inspired the whole 
church, and prepared the way for still larger increases in 
the years that followed. Chaplain McCabe did more to 
inspire the church along benevolent lines than any other 
man in our denominational history. He was elevated to 
the episcopacy in 1896 and won his crown December 19, 
1906. In a highly eulogistic editorial in The Christian 
Advocate, Dr. J. M. Buckley wrote: “As a preacher he held 
from the beginning to the end the attention of every auditor. 
His illustrations were vivid and his anecdotes were new, 
pertinent, and telling. Never weakly sentimental, his emo¬ 
tions were potent powers. The pathetic and moving elo¬ 
quence of Simpson never produced greater effects than did 
sometimes the intimate but not familiar, the natural but not 
uncultivated manner of Bishop McCabe. His ability to 
cause his audience to see the scene he described was un¬ 
paralleled. A half hour’s address in Pittsburgh after his 
return from South America produced the most vivid im¬ 
pression of a foreign country. While he spoke, we saw 
South America.” 

Dr. Peck had become distinguished as a pastor and 
preacher and brought to his new position a well-trained 
mind and a consecration only equaled by that displayed 
through many years of successful pastoral and pulpit serv- 


98 


THE STONE OF HELP 


ice. His passion for souls, so manifest in his pastoral life, 
flamed out even more intensely when as missionary secretary 
the world was his parish. His sermons and platform 
appeals in behalf of missions greatly stirred the church, 
while his important secretarial duties were performed in a 
most conscientious and effective manner. To his colleagues 
his sudden death seemed scarcely less than a calamity. On 
the morning of May 17, 1894, as the sun of a new day 
poured its unclouded light into the death chamber, his re¬ 
deemed spirit winged its way to the country where “they 
need no candle, neither the light of the sun; for the Lord 
God giveth them light; and they shall reign forever and 
ever.” 



































































































J. O. PECK 

1888-1894 


A. B. LEONARD 

1888-1912 




A. J. PALMER 


C. C. McCABE 


W. T. SMITH 





1896-1900 


1884-1896 


1896-1900 




H. K. CARROLL 


1900-1908 



H. C. STUNTZ 


1908 1912 


CORRESPONDING SECRETARIES OF THE MISSIONARY 
SOCIETY AND THE BOARD OF FOREIGN 
MISSIONS 1888-1912 





























CHAPTER XII 


FIRST VOYAGE 

Again the unexpected happened. Bishop Cyrus D. Foss 
had been assigned by his colleagues to visit the Far East and 
preside over the Conferences and missions in Japan, Korea, 
and China in 1893. On his way from Philadelphia he 
stopped at Evanston, Illinois, to attend the semiannual meet¬ 
ing of the Board of Bishops, and while there met with an 
accident, falling down a flight of stairs, which rendered 
him incapable of continuing his journey, and Bishop Ran¬ 
dolph S. Foster was designated to take up the task. After 
a brief visit to his home in Boston, Bishop Foster, on May 
13, appeared at the Missionary Office in New York and 
announced that he desired the writer to accompany him on 
his long journey, and assist in a thorough investigation of 
the work. Being absent from my office when the call was 
made, the Bishop left word that he would spend the follow¬ 
ing day (the Sabbath) at Madison, and would see me at 
my home in Morristown, in the afternoon. The visit was 
made, the whole matter was considered in the presence of 
my family, and the conclusion was reached that the call was 
clearly providential. The Board of Managers on the follow¬ 
ing Tuesday unanimously approved, and on Wednesday, 
May 17, I started on my long journey. 

The trip across the continent was made without incident 
worthy of notice and San Francisco was reached in five 
days. At three o’clock on the afternoon of May 23 we 

99 


IOO 


THE STONE OF HELP 


sailed on the good ship Oceanic, bound for Yokohama, and 
commanded by Captain W. M. Smith, a splendid seaman 
and a high-toned gentleman. 

Immediately upon passing through the Golden Gate our 
ship encountered a strong northwest wind, which soon be¬ 
came a furious gale, sending the passengers to their state¬ 
rooms to settle accounts with Neptune upon such terms as 
he might see fit to exact. As the night advanced, the gale 
became a hurricane, and the billows not only swept the decks 
but frequently leaped the funnel. Bishop Foster, who had 
been one hundred and fifty nights at sea, said it was the 
worst storm he had ever experienced, and Captain Smith, 
who had been in command of ships on the Pacific Ocean for 
fifteen years, said it was the worst he had ever known. Be¬ 
fore another twenty-four hours had passed we reached quiet 
waters and the balance of the voyage to Yokohama was 
made in comparative comfort. 

At Sea 

From ten to eleven o’clock each forenoon our party 
gathered about a table in the dining saloon and discussed 
questions related to missionary life and work, under the 
leadership of Bishop Foster or an experienced missionary, 
thus turning to good account the passing hours. Upon 
reaching the one hundred and eightieth meridian, we had the 
novel experience of losing a day. We retired on the evening 
of Thursday, June i, and woke up the next morning to find 
that it was Saturday, June 3, Friday, June 2, having dropped 
into the ocean. Captain Smith said it had been thrown 
overboard. 


CHAPTER XIII 


DAI NIPPON 

The country known to the people of the West as Japan 
is by the natives called Dai Nippon. It lies in the Pacific 
Ocean off the continent of Asia, in the form of a crescent, 
and consists of four principal islands, Hokkaido, Hondo, 
Shikoku, and Kyushu, together with a large number of 
small islands, many of which are mere dots on the surface 
of the water. The total area is one hundred and sixty-one 
thousand one hundred and ninety-eight square miles, or 
about equal to the State of California. For scenic pic¬ 
turesqueness, on a grand scale, Japan has few equals. As the 
ship upon which one sails approaches the main island, the 
first object that arrests attention is Fuji, with its crown of 
perpetual snow, which seems to arise from ocean depths, 
but upon nearer approach is found to be only the tallest 
of many others that rise to lesser heights, not a few of 
which are either extinct or active volcanos. Traveling 
through the country, one is seldom out of sight for any 
considerable length of time of the smoke of a slumbering 
furnace that may break forth at any moment and carry 
destruction to the surrounding territory and death to the 
inhabitants. In January, 1914, the volcano Sakura-Jimna, 
situated on an island about seventy-five miles from Na¬ 
gasaki, in a southeasterly direction, broke forth violently 
after a sleep of one hundred and thirty-five years. The 
number of houses burned was one thousand seven hundred 


101 


102 


THE STONE OF HELP 


and fifty, and many hundreds of the people lost their lives. 
The city of Kogoshima, on the shore of the bay, twenty 
miles away, was greatly damaged by ashes which fell in its 
streets to the depth of several feet and by burning lava. 
But this was only one of thousands of eruptions that have 
occurred in the history of Japan. Earthquakes are also 
of frequent occurrence, and always accompany volcanic 
eruptions. It is reported that in thirteen years, ending with 
1897, Japan was visited by seventeen thousand seven hun¬ 
dred and fifty shocks, or an average of about three a day. 
Many of these shocks were slight, while some were very 
severe and destructive. 

October 28, 1891, an earthquake occurred in the southern 
part of the main island centering at the city of Nagoya, 
when ten thousand people were killed, fifteen thousand 
wounded, and one hundred thousand houses were destroyed. 

Just as day was dawning after my first night ashore I 
had an interesting earthquake experience. I was in that 
blissful borderland where one is neither asleep nor awake, 
when the first shock came, causing the timbers of the house 
to vibrate. I dreamed that I was aboard ship, which was 
swaying in a storm. Then the timbers creaked and I 
dreamed that the sound came from the masts of the ship 
under the stress of the gale. A few seconds later I was 
wide awake, realizing that I was having my first Oriental 
earthquake experience. 

Mountains and Valleys 

The mountains of Japan are decorated and adorned with 
a large variety of stunted pines and various other trees of 
dwarfed growth, while in the valleys the graceful bamboo 
abounds, as also cherry blossoms, splendid chrysanthemums, 
gorgeous lotus flowers, etc. 


DAI NIPPON 


103 


The valleys are very rich and are largely devoted to the 
cultivation of rice. The mountain streams are utilized for 
irrigating the rice fields. When the streams reach the rims 
of the valleys, they are diverted from their channels into 
great ditches that run along the base of the foothills, and 
these ditches are tapped along the way by ditches that dis¬ 
tribute the water over the lower levels. The rice fields, or 
levels, rather, are of all sizes and forms, from a few square 
feet to half an acre or more. But every field must be per¬ 
fectly level so that the water may cover the whole surface, 
whether it is small or large. Passing through these valleys 
by jinrikisha or by rail, at the planting season, one sees 
thousands of men and women wading knee deep in water 
and mud setting out the rice plants, which have been pre¬ 
viously grown in hot-beds to the height of five or six inches. 
The plants are set in rows with narrow spaces between, and 
the ground remains flooded until the crop is well matured, 
when the water is shut off, that the ground may become 
dry, preparatory to the harvest. 

The Hokkaido 

Taking ship at Yokohama, we made a trip of five hundred 
miles to Hokodate, on the Hokkaido, the most northerly of 
the four principal islands of the Japanese empire. At the 
time of our visit the city had a population of forty thousand. 
Here we had a frame church that would accommodate two 
hundred people and a membership of one hundred and 
seventy-five practically self-supporting. The ground upon 
which the church stood was held by a perpetual lease from 
the government, at a cost of $100 per year. 

The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society had a girls’ 
school with one hundred students, occupying a commodious 
building, which cost $10,000, There were also two good 


104 


THE STONE OF HELP 


dwelling houses owned by the mission and occupied by 
missionaries, erected at a cost of $3,500. During the eve¬ 
ning of the night spent in Hakodate a religious service 
was held and the house was crowded to hear brief addresses 
by Bishop Foster and the writer, interpreted by Dr. Soper, 
and a sermon by the Rev. Y. Hounda, of the Japan Con¬ 
ference. 


The Japan Conference 

On June 22 we arrived in Tokyo, where the two following 
weeks were spent in attending commencement exercises of 
our schools and delivering addresses, lectures, and sermons. 

On Thursday, July 6, the Japan Conference commenced 
its twelfth annual session in Goucher Hall, in our college 
building in Aoyama Tokyo. The Mission was founded in 
1873 and was organized into an Annual Conference in 1884, 
and included the Island Empire. There were 21 mission¬ 
aries, 78 native preachers, 7,064 communicants, and 5,501 
Sunday school scholars. The routine of the business was 
quite the same as in a home Conference, but was greatly 
retarded by the use of two languages, making it necessary 
to translate what was said in either into the other. 

An interesting incident was the visit of a delegation from 
the Canadian Methodist Conference, in session in Tokyo 
at the same time, when several fraternal addresses were de¬ 
livered and prophecies made for the future oneness of Japan 
Methodism, which were fulfilled in May, 1907, when the 
Japan Methodist Church was organized. 

On Sabbath morning the love feast was largely attended 
and deeply spiritual. The experiences related made plain 
the fact that the Japanese who accept Jesus Christ as a per¬ 
sonal Saviour come into a blessed consciousness of his 
saving power and are “able to comprehend with all saints 


DAI NIPPON 


105 


what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and 
to know the love of Christ which passeth all knowledge” 
and “be filled with all the fullness of God.” It has been 
my privilege since that day to attend love feasts in many 
lands and to have interpreted to me testimonies given in 
many languages and dialects, and they have as with one 
voice and tongue proclaimed that the “gospel of Christ is 
the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” 

At the public service the hall was filled, many English- 
speaking people being present. The bishop declined to 
preach or deliver a formal lecture or address through an 
interpreter. Although on this occasion he was urged to do 
so, on the ground that more than one half of the congrega¬ 
tion could not understand a word of English, he kindly but 
firmly declined, saying that the interpreter could make notes 
and give the substance of the sermon after its delivery. 
The text was: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all 
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save 
sinners” (1 Tim. 1. 15), and the theme was the incarnation 
and work of Jesus. The day was hot, and the bishop was 
so oppressed that he did not measure up to his usual 
standard of eloquence and power. The deacons were to 
have been ordained at 4 p. m., but on account of the bishop’s 
depression, the ordination service was deferred until Mon¬ 
day morning, when nine deacons and two elders were 
ordained. 


CHAPTER XIV 
IN JAPAN 
The Japanese People 

The revolution which commenced in 1868 and ended 
practically in 1872 abolished the shogunate and feudal 
system of government which had prevailed for centuries, 
and the Mikado was restored to his ancient position of 
supreme ruler. It is not possible here, nor is it important, 
to even sketch the struggle through which the Japanese 
nation passed in the brief space of four years. The revolu¬ 
tion ended twenty-one years prior to my visit, and although 
the changes had been marked, particularly in the form of 
government that had been brought into existence, the man¬ 
ners and customs and conditions of old Japan still largely 
prevailed. While there were palaces for the Mikado and 
the nobility, the common people lived in hovels, made largely 
of bamboo and reeds, plastered with mud and thatched with 
straw. Their clothing was of coarse material and often 
very scant in quantity. Many children of both sexes under 
ten years of age were nude, and not a few women and girls 
were innocent of clothes above their waists. Where such 
conditions obtain there can be little modesty and only a low 
type of morality. Up to the time of the revolution the edu¬ 
cation of the people had been largely neglected, and conse¬ 
quently widespread illiteracy prevailed. Since the revolution 
an excellent public school system has been established and 
the former illiteracy has largely though not entirely disap¬ 
peared. There has also been considerable improvement in 
temporal conditions. The stagnant sea of a civilization 
106 


IN JAPAN 


107 


which was the product of false religions has been stirred, 
and the people have been aroused from a moral and intel¬ 
lectual slumber of centuries. That this moral and intel¬ 
lectual quickening is the result of contact with Christian 
influences is the opinion of many who have studied the whole 
situation with open and unprejudiced minds. 

That as a people they are opinionated and egotistical may 
be admitted without claiming that they have a monopoly of 
those qualities. This has been admitted by some of their 
ablest scholars. Just prior to 1893 there appeared in the 
Contemporary Review an article describing them as “frivo¬ 
lous, caught for a moment into earnestness by the attractions 
of American civilization. . . . They live over a volcano, 
but their talk is of flowers and their interest is in the last 
foreign importation.” This was met by indignant protest 
from Japanese sources but was practically conceded by the 
ex-president of the Imperial University of Tokyo, who in 
an address delivered at about the same time said: “We are 
a clever people. . . . Within twenty or thirty years we 
have in virtue of this quality of smartness appropriated 
much from the West. It is a good thing to be clever, but 
to be clever only is to lack strength. Cleverness and stead¬ 
fastness of purpose rarely go hand in hand. The former 
is likely to taper away into shallowness and fickleness, and 
the fickle, shallow mind can rarely carry through to its 
end any great undertaking. While there are undoubtedly 
exceptions, yet I think this is our weakness—that we have 
not endurance, the indefatigable spirit of the men of the 
West.” 

Japanese Women 

Having had the privilege of extensive travel and observa¬ 
tion in India, China, and Korea, the writer frankly concedes 


io8 


THE STONE OF HELP 


that Japanese women were in 1893 on a higher plane than 
those of the countries just named. They were allowed 
greater freedom and were better educated. But admitting 
her advantages over other Oriental women, it must be added 
that her position was very low compared with the women 
of Christian civilizations. This difference is very marked. 
Not once did I see on the streets of Tokyo or any other city 
of Japan, a husband and wife walking side by side. If the 
wife accompanied her husband, she walked behind him, 
and if there were burdens to be borne, they were usually 
on her shoulders. She was a drudge, required often to 
render the most menial service. Vast numbers were em¬ 
ployed in removing the night soil from the cities. In The 
Mikado’s Empire, by W. E. Griffis, we read: “A great 
principle and an Asiatic institution are the causes of the 
degradation of Japanese women. The one is filial obedi¬ 
ence, the other polygamy. . . . The Japanese maiden, as 
pure as a Christian virgin, will, at the command of her 
father, enter the brothel to-morrow and prostitute herself 
for life. Not a murmur escapes her lips as she thus filially 
obeys. To a life she loathes, and to disease, premature old 
age, and an early grave she goes joyfully. The staple of a 
thousand novels, plays, and pictures in Japan is written in 
the life of a girl of gentle manners and tender heart, who 
hates her life and would gladly destroy it, but refrains be¬ 
cause her purchase money has enabled her father to pay his 
debts and she is bound not to injure herself. In the streets 
of the great cities of Japan are to-day, I doubt not, hundreds 
of girls who loathe their existence, but must live on in gilded 
misery because they are fulfilling all righteousness as 
summed up in filial piety.” A woman is a thing, a con¬ 
venience, a necessary evil, to be used and endured, but never 
an equal. She has no soul and can never be immortal unless 


IN JAPAN 


109 


she can be reborn a man, which means that immortality is 
to her impossible. Concubinage, which widely prevails, 
precludes the possibility of a pure home life. A Japanese 
can have but one legal wife, but he may have as many 
concubines as he can support. A wife may be divorced at 
the will of her husband for any one of the following seven 
offenses: 

1. If she is disobedient to her parents-in-law. 

2. If she is barren. 

3. If she is lewd or licentious. 

4. If she be jealous. 

5. If she have a loathsome or contagious disease. 

6. If she steal. 

7. If she talks too much. 

But notwithstanding the low estimate in which they are 
popularly held, and their many disabilities, the women of 
Japan are reported to be very influential in the home, and 
often its real ruler. 


CHAPTER XV 


IN JAPAN 
(continued) 

Shrines and Temples 

Traveling in Japan and seeing shrines and temples on 
every hand, one is often reminded of Saint Paul’s declara¬ 
tion concerning the Athenians: “Ye men of Athens, I per¬ 
ceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.” The 
shrines and temples were constructed by the unpaid labor 
of the common people, who were the vassals of the nobility. 
I visited a mountain gorge, where upon the bank of a 
torrent that leaped and thundered along its rocky channel 
there was what might well be described as an avenue of the 
gods. The images were carved in stone and lined the way 
for a distance of thirty rods or more. One was of colossal 
stature, while most of them were life-size. I counted one 
hundred and twenty-one. It was said that no two persons 
ever count the same number. The superstition prevailed 
there like that in England concerning the druidical stones, 
to the effect that no two persons could number the stones 
alike and that no one person could ever make a second count 
confirm the first. Some of these images had lost their 
heads, others were more or less disfigured, while many 
were quite overgrown with moss. Here I visited a small 
temple containing one thousand gods made of brass, while 
about it were forty-seven carved in stone. One is con¬ 
stantly reminded of the significant fact that decay and 


no 


Ill 


IN JAPAN 

destruction are written upon all except a comparatively few 
of these shrines, temples, and gods. Nothing seemed to 
have been recently constructed and only a few of the most 
important places were kept in good repair. In a journey 
of over five hundred miles, with careful observation, I 
saw but one temple in process of erection and not one that 
looked as though it had been erected in recent years. I saw 
many temples with roofs rotten and leaky and many shrines 
in process of decay. I visited a large temple occupied as 
the summer home of a missionary and found in a secluded 
spot the shrine of the priest that had once resided there, 
then uninhabited by anything except two ugly images, while 
the roof over it had partly rotted away. Even about many 
magnificent temples there were marks of neglect and decay. 
Stones that had fallen out of walls were scattered about. 
Pavements were uneven and stone steps leading to the 
temples were often greatly out of repair. Just outside of 
the city of Sendai there was a Shinto temple, erected to 
the memory of Datemasamune, once the most powerful 
feudal lord that ever ruled north of Tokyo. But the ap¬ 
proaches to the temple and tomb, the torii, the gates and 
doors, as well as the tomb itself, were all quite dilapidated. 

Temples and Tombs at Nikko 

While there is widespread decay of shrines and temples, 
there are .instances where these institutions are still main¬ 
tained on a scale of great magnificence, although con¬ 
structed in the days of old Japan. The most noted and 
important of these are the temples and tombs at Nikko, 
a mountainous region embracing a considerable tract of 
country on which are located the grandest temples and 
tombs that have been produced by the Japanese nation. 
The mountains are adorned with splendid specimens of 


112 


THE STONE OF HELP 


cryptomerias; and an old highway stretching miles away 
is lined on both sides with these graceful trees, which 
stand as mute sentinels along its tortuous course. Along 
this ancient highway the envoy of the Mikado used to 
pass when carrying gifts to be placed upon the tomb of 
Jeyasu, in whose memory one of the greatest temples was 
erected. 

It is not possible to give an adequate description of these 
temples and tombs or to convey any proper conception of 
the grandeur of the scale upon which they have been pro¬ 
jected or the elaborateness of their construction and adorn¬ 
ment. They must be seen and carefully studied to be fully 
appreciated. And yet I am disposed to reproduce a de¬ 
scription of one of these temples, written on the ground 
more than a score of years ago, painfully realizing how far 
it falls short of the reality. The Mausoleum, or Temple, 
of Jeyasu was founded in A. D. 1616, by the second Sho¬ 
gun (the then military head of the nation), obeying the 
dying command of his father. The mortuary chapel was 
completed in the early part of the following year. On 
April 20, 1617, the procession bearing the corpse of Jeyasu 
started from Kuno-Zan and reached Nikko on the 8th of 
May. The casket was placed in the tomb with elaborate 
ceremonies, in which the living Shogun and an envoy repre¬ 
senting the Mikado took part. 

The approach to the temple is along a broad, graveled 
way, walled on either side by heavy masonry widely over¬ 
grown with moss, giving the appearance of greater an¬ 
tiquity than history accords. A broad flight of steps lined 
with cryptomerias leads under a granite torii, the height 
of which is twenty-seven feet and six inches, the diameter 
of the columns supporting it being three feet and six inches. 
On the left hand stands a five-story pagoda, highly deco- 


IN JAPAN 113 

rated, painted in bright colors, and rising to a height of one 
hundred and four feet. Around the lower story are carv¬ 
ings representing the twelve signs of the Zodiac. 

We now pass through a massive structure known as “The 
Ni-O-Mon,” or “Gate of Two Kings.” The carvings which 
adorn this gateway are very elaborate. On the tops of the 
pillars are images which are supposed to ward off pesti¬ 
lences. On the outer ends of the structure are lions. In 
niches, right and left of the lions, at one end are unicorns 
and in corresponding niches at the other end are representa¬ 
tions of fabulous beasts, which are supposed to be endowed 
with the power of speech, but only appear when a virtuous 
sovereign occupies the throne, which, alas! has seldom oc¬ 
curred. 

Passing through the “Gate of the Two Kings,” we enter 
a court where there are three handsome buildings, in which 
various utensils employed in the religious ceremonies per¬ 
formed in honor of Jeyasu are deposited. On the left of 
the gate stands a tree, surrounded by a granite railing, said 
to have been carried by Jeyasu in his palanquin when it 
was growing in a flower pot. Near this tree is a stable in 
which is kept a sacred pony upon which Jeyasu is supposed 
to take an occasional ride. The pony was in good condition 
and evidently was not overworked by his deified master. 
Near by is a huge holy water basin made of solid granite 
so perfectly balanced that the water which enters its base 
overflows the brim at equal depth of its entire circumfer¬ 
ence. A highly decorated building near the holy water 
cistern is the depository of a complete collection of the 
Buddhist Scriptures, contained in a finely constructed re¬ 
volving bookcase, with red lacquered panels and gilt pillars. 
A flight of steps leads to another court, guarded by a stone 
balustrade. Here are two lions in the act of leaping down 


114 THE STONE OF HELP 

and near by a bell-tower, a bronze candelabrum and a bell 
called “the moth-eaten bell/’ because of a hole in the top 
just under the ring by which it is suspended. Here are 
also a bronze lantern, a candelabrum, a drum-tower, and 
behind these a temple dedicated to the Buddhist god 
Yakushi Nyoria. A flight of steps leads to a platform 
through an exquisitely beautiful gate, the columns of which 
are carved with a minute geometrical pattern and painted 
white. On one of the pillars the pattern is carved up-side- 
down, lest the faultless perfection of the structure should 
bring misfortune upon the dynasty by exciting the jealousy 
of heaven. Passing through the gate, a second court is 
entered inclosed on three sides by cloisters, while on the 
fourth side there is a massive stone wall, built against the 
face of a mountain. Here are two buildings, one containing 
a stage for the performance of a sacred dance, and where 
a woman was dancing for a money consideration, and the 
other for the burning of the sacred cedar while prayers 
were recited. Another building contains the cars, carried 
in procession on the first day of June annually, when the 
deified spirits of Jeyasu, Hides, Oshi, and Yoritomo are 
supposed to occupy them. Here is the inclosure containing 
the oratory or chapel. This building forms a quadrangle, 
each side of which is fifty yards long and is constructed of 
gilt trellis, with borders of colored geometrical decorations. 
The folding doors of the oratory are massive and highly 
decorated. The interior is a matted room, forty-two feet 
long and twenty-seven feet wide, into which no one can 
enter without first removing his shoes. The lavish decora¬ 
tions of this room are bewildering and indescribable. To 
reach the tomb of Jeyasu one passes through a door over 
which is a carving called “Numuri No Niko,” or “Sleeping 
Cat,” a famous piece of art. From this point one ascends 


IN JAPAN 


ii5 

several flights of steps, numbering in all two hundred and 
six, running along a moss-grown gallery, shaded by stately 
cryptomerias. The tomb is in the form of a small pagoda 
and is a solid bronze casting of a light color said to be the 
result of an admixture of gold. 

The above gives but a faint idea of the principal edifices 
that make up the group that constitute the Mausoleum and 
the Temple of Jeyasu. Without attempting a description 
of the decorations, a thing that would be impossible, even 
were the writer a skilled artist, it may be said that the carv¬ 
ings represent beasts of every hoof and claw, birds of every 
wing, and reptiles of every form. These beasts, birds, 
and reptiles are produced in the most hideous forms and 
with the most terrible features that the human mind can 
imagine. Indeed, the wonder is that any mind could con¬ 
ceive such horrible creations. Then there are carvings and 
paintings in human and demon forms that beggar and defy 
all description. The artists, if fiendishness belongs to art, 
seem to have racked their brain and distorted their imagina¬ 
tion to the point of frenzy, for the sole purpose of invent¬ 
ing creations that would excite only fear and horror. 
While I was amazed at the splendor, extravagance, and 
horrifying creations among which I wandered for hours, 
I was also deeply impressed with the conviction that the 
whole system of religion of which they are the exponent 
is satanic. 


Bronze Image of Buddha 

After a quiet Sabbath in the home of the Rev. G. F. 
Draper, in Yokohama, we made a visit by jinrikishas to 
Kamakura, sixteen miles south of Yokohama, to see the 
great bronze image of Sakya Muni, or Buddha, as he is 
popularly known in Japan. The image, once sheltered by 


116 


THE STONE OF HELP 


a gorgeous temple, sits in the open on a granite base, 
elaborately carved and adorned. It is made of bronze and 
has occupied its present position since A. D. 1250. 
Although considerably damaged by a flood in 1495, it is 
still well preserved. It is of huge proportions—fifty feet 
high, ninety-eight feet waist circumference; length of face, 
eight and a half feet; breadth of eye, four feet; ear, sixteen 
feet six and a half inches; nose, three feet eight and a 
half inches; breadth of mouth, three feet two and a half 
inches; diameter of lap, thirty-six feet, and circumference 
of thumb, three feet. 

Entering a door in the rear of the foundation, I ascended 
a flight of stairs that led me to the shoulders of the image 
and then by a ladder I climbed into its skull. Facing about 
and surveying my surroundings, I said, “Heartless and 
brainless!” Having reached Nirvana, there is total extinc¬ 
tion of consciousness, consequently no feeling, no thought. 
Buddhism originated in India six centuries before Christ. 
Driven out of that country, it swept through Burma, Siam, 
Thibet, China, Manchuria, Korea, and twelve centuries 
later entered Japan, where it found a virgin soil. It found 
Shintoism “a pale, shadowy cult, that consisted essentially 
of sacrificing to the spirits of departed heroes and ancestors, 
with ceremonies of bodily purification, and the coming of 
Buddhism quickened it by the force of opposition into 
something approaching a religious system.” 


CHAPTER XVI 


SECOND VISIT TO JAPAN 

Organization of the Japan Methodist Church 

In May, 1907, fourteen years after my visit described in 
a previous chapter, I was in Japan a second time to attend 
the final session of the Japan Conference and assist in the 
organization of the new ecclesiastical body now known as 
the Japan Methodist Church. Both the missionaries and 
the Japanese members of the Conference about to go out 
of existence manifested considerable seriousness when they 
came to the last moments of the session, remembering that 
as a Conference they would never meet again. When the 
draft on the Book Concern for $600 for the superannuated 
preachers was announced Bishop Cranston, who was pre¬ 
siding, suggested that as it was the last one of the kind they 
would ever see, they had better have it framed and pre¬ 
served as a souvenir of past blessings, but the brethren in¬ 
terested preferred the cash it represented, and consequently 
it was sent to a bank. 

The General Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the 
Canadian Methodist Church, having approved of the union 
of their respective missions in Japan into one ecclesiastical 
body, said union was consummated by a General Confer¬ 
ence convened in Aoyama, Tokyo, May 23, 1907, under the 
supervision of commissioners from the home churches, 
namely, Bishop Earl Cranston and A. B. Leonard, of the 


118 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Methodist Episcopal Church; Bishop A. W. Wilson and 
W. R. Lambuth, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
and Superintendent A. Carman and Alexander Sutherland, 
of the Canadian Methodist Church. 

Bishop Cranston presided at the opening session and 
thereafter until a Discipline was formed and a bishop was 
elected and consecrated, the commissioners presided in rota¬ 
tion. The formation of a Discipline for the new Church 
was the matter of supreme importance. The committee 
charged with this important duty was necessarily consti¬ 
tuted of persons who were without legislative experience, 
as, indeed, were nearly all the members of the Conference. 
The committee’s first report to the Conference made it clear 
that some plan must be adopted that would avoid debate 
on the Conference floor if the task was to be successfully 
accomplished. After careful consideration it was decided 
by a unanimous vote to refer the formation of a Discipline 
to the standing committee on that subject and the six com¬ 
missioners with power. This plan proved to be a complete 
success, and in ten days the work was completed. The new 
Discipline was a blending of the essential provisions of the 
Disciplines of the three uniting bodies, and by some was 
regarded as being an improvement upon either. 

On Saturday, June i, the Rev. Yoitsu Honda, D.D., of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, was elected by a vote of 
forty-two out of fifty the first kantoku (bishop) of the 
Japan Methodist Church, and on June 2 he was consecrated. 

That he had right views of the great obligations assumed 
upon his elevation to the episcopal office was made clear 
by the following brief address, made upon his formal intro¬ 
duction to the General Conference as its presiding officer: 

I am truly grateful for the courteous introduction I have just had 
to the Conference. It is not time for an address but for the assumption 




















































- 























































































































































































HALL OF AO YAM A GAKUIN, TOKYO 









SECOND VISIT TO JAPAN 119 

of duty. I desire to say just a few words. I have been introduced as 
assuming a new relationship to you, brethren. When thinking of the 
discharge of my duty I desire to keep in mind what I read to you: 
“My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” These words of Christ I 
have relished and know by experience what the words “easy” and 
“light” signify. Those who believe Christ have peace and comfort; 
but not only peace and comfort in Christ, but they also have his yoke. 
We must remember that we have a burden upon our backs. However 
great may be our peace and comfort, we are not like a colt running 
wild in the wilderness. We have a yoke and a master. We are not 
to walk in lawlessness, but to go where Christ sends us and bear the 
burdens the Master lays upon us. We are not occupied with personal 
affairs; we are under a yoke, under a burden. We must simply, with 
faith and loyalty toward Christ, experience the joy of service under 
this yoke. We must evermore be willing to recognize this burden. We 
have become an independent church. But our purpose has been not 
so much to establish an independent church as to secure the salvation 
of our brethren and to become as useful and efficient as possible. For 
this purpose we have united our strength and our efforts. Independ¬ 
ence is the natural result of union. We trust that our independence 
will show its power through the union. We have been assisted by 
the mother churches hitherto, but independence is of great importance. 
That we are united we owe our gratitude to the mother churches. But 
we must feel deeply that we have a yoke and a burden upon us. I 
with you have labored with great anxiety at times to bring this about; 
but now that our aim is accomplished we are not to rest from our 
labors. Our work just now really begins. Let us undertake it not 
as the work of a congregation or an organization or a country but 
as the work of the Lord. 

Bishop Honda served the church and the Japanese nation 
faithfully and successfully until his death, which occurred 
March 26, 1912. On April 7, 1912, at a special session of 
the General Conference of the Japan Methodist Church, 
the Rev. Yoshiasu Hiriawa was elected and consecrated 
and became Bishop Honda’s successor. 

The organization of the new church did not mean that 
the home churches would withdraw from missionary work 
in Japan, but believing that in union there would be increas¬ 
ing strength and aggressiveness, they entered into hearty 


120 


THE STONE OF HELP 


cooperation with the new organization and are increasing 
their missionary forces. The native church is intensely 
anxious that the closest relations shall exist between the 
mother churches and their offspring in Japan. The move¬ 
ment for an independent Japanese Church was not 
prompted by an egotistical desire to be free from foreign 
rule, but it was in response to the national spirit of the 
Japanese people. Japan had become a great world power, 
and it was natural that the national spirit should manifest 
itself in religious as well as in secular and political affairs. 


CHAPTER XVII 


KOREA—1893 

Having completed our work of investigation and super¬ 
vision in Japan, Bishop Foster and the writer took ship at 
Nagasaki for Chemulpo, and from there across the country 
for twenty-six miles in chairs, carried by coolies to Seoul, 
the capital of Korea, a city with an estimated population 
of two hundred and fifty thousand. It would be an im¬ 
possible task to write a description of Seoul as it was at 
the time of our visit. The houses of the common people 
were wretched hovels and the streets were not only un¬ 
paved, but reeking with filth. The wonder was that the 
people could exist under such unsanitary conditions. But 
in spite of the filth, the principal streets were thronged with 
men and boys, clothed in white, flowing costumes, wearing 
wooden clogs to protect their feet from the mud, which 
during the rainy season was of uncertain depth and quality. 
Up to within a decade of our visit Korea was known as 
“The Hermit Kingdom.” Her capital was built inland and 
surrounded by mountains. No cities were seen on her 
seventeen hundred miles of coast, lest foreigners sailing the 
neighboring seas might be attracted to her shores. By rea¬ 
son of her geographical location, which attracted the 
cupidity of her neighbors, she became a coveted prize and 
for a long period a buffer state between Russia, China, and 
Japan. The country as a whole is quite as mountainous 
as Japan, but its natural scenery is far less picturesque and 

121 


122 


THE STONE OF HELP 


attractive by reason of the absence of forests, of which the 
whole country, except along the Yalu River on the western 
border, was denuded centuries ago. Seldom does the 
traveler see clumps of bamboo and growths of pine which 
so beautifully border the valleys and adorn the mountains 
in Japan. In crossing the country from Fusan on the east 
coast to Chemulpo on the west and thence to Yengbyen, 
the capital of the most northern province in 1907, a total 
distance going and returning of one thousand miles, by day¬ 
light, I did not see an acre that was covered with forest. 
The hills and mountains are almost treeless, though usually 
covered with coarse grass, and sometimes with trees of 
stunted growth and underbrush. Villages are numerous 
on the rims of the valleys, the houses, or hovels rather, 
being constructed of lattice daubed with mud, or coarse 
matting, with straw ropes serving as warp and millet stalks 
for woof. Frequently the houses are built in part of rough, 
unhewn stones and boulders, and usually covered with oval 
thatch-roofs made of millet stalks or rice straw. In the 
larger towns the houses are built of more substantial ma¬ 
terial and sometimes roofed with tile, but they are always 
untidy and often filthy. 

The People 

The Korean people claim a history of more than four 
thousand years, and have ethnological, philological, and 
national characteristics peculiar to themselves, while they 
also have traditions and customs common to all Orientals. 
For centuries they have been in a condition of arrested 
development. In their case the law of evolution seems to 
have been long ago suspended and they must be classed 
among the backward or undeveloped peoples of the world. 
In fact, they are yet children, having scarcely reached the 


KOREA 


123 


adolescent period. They are not belligerent in disposition, 
but when too frequently imposed upon and outraged they 
sometimes turn upon their persecutors with tigerlike 
ferocity. They are hospitable and will share their huts and 
food with strangers with a generosity and bearing worthy 
of dwellers in mansions and the dispensers of the most 
lavish hospitality. Mentally they are not noted for alert¬ 
ness, for the reason that for centuries they have been de¬ 
prived of the intellectual stimulus necessary to quicken 
mental activity. 

Religions 

There are three religions or cults that jointly dominate 
the national life of the Korean people—Shamanism, Bud¬ 
dhism, and Confucianism. The attention of the foreigner as 
he travels through the country is attracted by heaps of 
stones, rude shrines, trees with rags and paper-tabs tied to 
their branches and stones piled at their base, to which people 
bow and worship as they pass; rows of repulsive figures on 
ridgepoles of imperial and governmental buildings and on 
the roofs of the gates of the capital city, blind sorcerers 
feeling their way along the street and searching for a house 
that has become the abode of an evil spirit—these are only 
a few of the many evidences of the presence and power of 
Shamanism, which “busies itself with securing and retain¬ 
ing the good will of innumerable spirits that have their 
abode in earth and sky, in umbrageous tree by the roadside, 
and in peaceful agricultural valley, in tiled roof of the 
patrician, and in the straw thatch of the humble peasant.” 
Within the walls of Seoul, the capital, the visitor does not 
see a temple representing any pagan religion or cult. Bud¬ 
dhism entered Korea from China A. D. 371, and for a 
considerable period had large influence, and then followed 


124 


THE STONE OF HELP 


a period of decline. By reason of their meddling with 
politics, Buddhist priests were rigidly excluded from Seoul 
for about five centuries. Driven out of the city, they fled 
to the mountains, where they erected numerous temples and 
monasteries and where elaborate religious ceremonies were 
performed. There they still chant the virtues of Buddha, 
offer worship to expressionless images, present offerings of 
the products of the valleys, burn incense, make their pros¬ 
trations, count the rosary, mumble prayers, and hope for 
Nirvana, the abode of everlasting unconsciousness. 

Confucianism entered Korea at an early day, possibly not 
long after the Christian era, but Confucianism is not a reli¬ 
gion. It is simply a system of ethics. It has nothing to 
say about human obligation to a Divine Being or about the 
future life. The Korean people are as a whole what Sha¬ 
manism, Buddhism, and Confucianism have made them. 
These three religions blend into one, and their product is 
seen in the temporal, intellectual, and spiritual status of the 
masses. 


Family and Social Life 

As in all heathen countries, in Korea the husband is at 
once the head and master of the family. In domestic and 
social life a woman has neither legal nor moral existence. 
She is only a thing to be used by her lord as his convenience 
or caprice may dictate, and is never recognized as his equal 
or companion. 

Marriage is regarded as a very important event. Indeed, 
a young man is of no account until he takes a wife. Previ¬ 
ous to marriage he is regarded as a mere child and is held 
to very small account for anything he may do. Whatever 
his pranks, they are credited to his adolescent state. Though 
he be a bachelor of thirty years, he may take no part in 


KOREA 


125 

social reunions or have anything to say on important ques¬ 
tions. 

The badge of single blessedness is the style of wearing 
the hair. An unmarried youth parts his hair in the middle, 
braids it, and allows it to hang down his back and goes bare¬ 
headed. The boy of sixteen years, to an American, has 
the appearance of a girl. Just before his marriage the 
young man puts up his hair in a topknot, and at once be¬ 
comes a man, though he may be only twelve or thirteen 
years old. He now “takes the hat” and has a right to be 
heard among men, and is rated as such. Having once 
donned a hat, the Korean scarcely doffs it until he shuffles 
off his mortal coil. 

From the moment of the reciprocal salutations before 
the witnesses on the wedding day the wife belongs in the 
fullest sense to her husband. He may divorce her at his 
pleasure, but he may not have another legal wife, though 
he may have any number of concubines. Even though he 
does not divorce his wife, he may take as many concubines 
as he can support. Conjugal fidelity is obligatory upon a 
wife but not upon a husband. In the married state a woman 
is at her best but a slave of superior rank. It is no uncom¬ 
mon occurrence for a husband to beat his wife to bring her 
in subjection. 

Annual Meeting 

The annual meeting of the Korea Mission for 1893 was 
held in Seoul, August 31 to September 8, Bishop R. S. 
Foster presiding. The mission was founded in 1885, eight 
years previously. It was a day of small things and yet a good 
beginning had been made. By treaty stipulations religious 
toleration and the right to acquire property were secured. 
The property that had been secured was finely located. The 


126 


THE STONE OF HELP 


compound contained about four acres and included two 
knolls, divided by a narrow vale with graceful slopes. Other 
properties in different sections of the city were equally well 
located. The mission had also acquired property in Che¬ 
mulpo and Wonsan, seaports, and at Pyengyang and 
We-Ju, inland cities. The outlook for the future was 
encouraging though the difficulties confronting our small 
force were very great. Looked at from a merely human 
standpoint, the task of lifting twelve million people out of 
the slough of heathenism and placing them on the high level 
of a Christian civilization seemed impossible, but “all things 
are possible with God.” In 1907, fourteen years after the 
former one, it was my privilege to visit Korea a second time. 
During the interval the mission had grown into a Mission 
Conference, and the annual session was held in Seoul, June 
18-24, under the joint presidency of Bishops Cranston and 
Harris. 


Political Events 

Meanwhile political events of great importance had trans¬ 
pired, which had practically put an end to the Korean 
empire. The war between China and Japan, fought on the 
Korean peninsula in 1894, had abolished the suzerainty of 
China over Korea, and the war between Russia and Japan, 
in 1904-05, in which the latter was victorious, had caused 
the former to surrender her long-cherished purpose to add 
the once hermit kingdom to her vast possessions. While the 
throne of Korea still remained, its occupant was deprived 
of all government authority, except such as his Majesty, the 
emperor of Japan, might graciously permit him to exercise. 
The victory of Japan over her great northern foe had settled 
the question of the supremacy of the former over the 
Korean peninsula and she had already taken practical con- 


KOREA 


127 


trol of the government. His Excellency, the late Prince 
Ito, the personal representative of the emperor of Japan, 
was the real ruler. The ancient throne of Korea has 
crumbled to dust and the peninsula is only a province of the 
empire of Japan. Great changes have occurred. A notori¬ 
ously corrupt Oriental court has been abolished. Steadily 
the imperial Japanese government moved forward on a 
well-planned policy of elimination of the prerogatives of 
the Korean crown, until the last semblance of authority 
was wiped out and the emperor was reduced to the nomi¬ 
nally honorary grade of a prince of Japan. On August 20, 
1910, the treaty was signed and on August 29, 1910, the 
proclamation was sent forth which put the treaty into full 
force, and there passed from the family of nations one of 
the most ancient monarchies of the world. 

In the interval since 1907 the population of Seoul has 
remained at two hundred and fifty thousand, seventy thou¬ 
sand of whom are Japanese. In many ways the city has 
been improved and modernized. Streets have been widened 
and paved, a sewerage system constructed, electric lights and 
telephones installed, and a good trolley car service put into 
operation and an excellent banking system established. A 
very important advance has been made in the direction of 
higher Christian education. A Union Christian College 
is projected in Seoul and will be established in the not 
distant future in which several denominations will cooperate. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, have united in the founding of a 
theological seminary in Seoul. A fine site has been secured 
outside the west wall of the city and suitable buildings are 
in process of erection. This institution has been made 
possible by the generosity of the late Mrs. W. A. Gamble, 
of Cincinnati, Ohio. The school is in successful operation, 


128 


THE STONE OF HELP 


and already its graduates are entering the Christian minis¬ 
try. A Union Bible School has also been inaugurated in 
Seoul, which will prepare candidates for the higher courses 
in the theological seminary. 




PEKING UNIVERSITY 


































CHAPTER XVIII 


CHINA—1893 

Taking ship at Chemulpo, Korea, we sailed for Tientsin, 
China. Our ship being of too great draught to ascend the 
Peiho River, we disembarked in the Gulf of Chihli and 
took a sailboat to Ta-ku, at the mouth of the river, and 
thence by train for Tientsin, where we were most cordially 
welcomed by the Rev. G. R. Davis, the presiding elder of 
the Tientsin District. After a night’s rest, together with 
Brother Davis and a party of missionaries, we embarked on 
houseboats on the Peiho River for Tung-Chau, eighty miles 
away. 

Arriving at Tung-Chou, we took chairs and donkeys for 
Peking; twelve miles away, over a great highway fifty feet 
wide, paved with thick flagstones, some of which were of 
immense proportions. 

Peking 

The capital of the then Chinese empire is situated on a 
vast sandy plain, and is surrounded by a massive wall, con¬ 
taining a population estimated at from eight hundred thou¬ 
sand to one million. There are really four cities—the 
Tartar City, the Chinese City, the Imperial City, and the 
Prohibited City. The Tartar City is occupied by the Man- 
chus, who conquered China in 1644. All Manchus were 
pensioned by the government at a cost of $800,000 a month, 
and constituted a sort of standing army that could be sum¬ 
moned to the defense of the throne at any moment. The 
wall about this city was said to be forty-five feet high and 

129 


130 


THE STONE OF HELP 


forty-seven feet broad at the top, paved with large brick 
flags, protected by battlement-parapets on each side, and is 
nine miles long. This wall has nine gates—three on the 
south side and two each on the three remaining sides. The 
gates are surmounted by towers, said to be one hundred 
feet above all other structures. 

The principal streets of the city were wide, without pave¬ 
ments, sidewalks, or sewers. They were the receptacles of 
all kinds of filth, the fumes of which were indescribable and 
unendurable. There were cesspools into which unwary 
foreigners sometimes tumbled, particularly when they 
walked the streets by night. A missionary who had an 
engagement to deliver an address before a select company 
was reported to have fallen into one of these pools, when 
on his way, ruining his best suit of clothes. 

At night the streets were without illumination except what 
was afforded by paper lanterns, lighted with tallow candles, 
which were necessary if one would keep out of ditches and 
cesspools, containing liquid abominations. Between four 
and six o’clock daily, in dry weather, the principal streets 
were sprinkled with the contents of cesspools. At such times 
one might wish that olfactories could be dispensed with, 
or at least their acuteness suspended. Attention was at¬ 
tracted to the different colors of the tiles on the roofs of 
the houses. The yellow roof sheltered royalty, and the 
green, blue, and red different grades of nobility. Anyone 
using these colors out of rank was punished severely. We 
were told that trouble had arisen with Roman Catholics 
because they had used yellow tile in constructing roofs on 
their church edifices and by so doing claimed equality for the 
pope with the emperor. Here rank is of great importance 
and is flaunted everywhere: the colors upon their sedan 
chairs, carts, and even the harness of the mules, together 


CHINA 


131 

with the number of attendants who go before to clear the 
way and follow after to guard against possible damage. 

Peking presented many strange and striking contrasts. 
It was the seat of royalty and the abode of indescribable 
squalor; palaces of splendor and hovels of poverty; grounds 
adorned with flowers of every hue and shrubs and trees of 
rare beauty, and large sections where utter desolation pre¬ 
vailed; broad avenues among the palaces, narrow, filthy 
streets among the hovels; people of high intelligence and of 
dense ignorance. It was to Peking that students from all 
parts of the empire resorted to pass their final examinations 
for the third degree that would admit them to the rank of 
scholarship and to official honors. There was the great 
examination hall with a capacity of fifteen thousand stu¬ 
dents, upon the spacious site of which there now stands a 
public school building that would be a credit to any Ameri¬ 
can city. For the examinations of former days in the Con- 
fucian classics there are now examinations in engineering, 
railroading, mathematics, and the sciences. The old and the 
obsolete have given place to the new and practical. 

North China Conference 

Our work in North China was commenced in 1869 in the 
city of Peking. At the time of our visit it had been in 
progress twenty-four years. During the Conference session, 
held in Asbury Church, September 28, 1893, the mission 
was organized into what has been since known as the North 
China Annual Conference and was divided into five districts, 
“each the size of an ordinary Annual Conference in the 
homeland”—so said the report of the superintendent, Dr. 
H. H. Lowry. In Peking we had one good, substantial 
church edifice, situated in our compound, that would accom¬ 
modate about five hundred people, and two chapels located 


132 


THE STONE OF HELP 


on streets where services were held five days each week. 
Here on our compound was located the Peking University, 
and there were intermediate schools in Peking, Tientsin, 
Tsunhua, Taian, and Lanchow. There were also numerous 
primary schools in different parts of the Conference. Con¬ 
ference Sunday was a day to be remembered because of the 
intense interest that characterized all the services. 

But it was the “heathen” school at 3 p. m. that impressed 
me most deeply. There were present about five hundred, 
varying in age from four or five years to fifteen or sixteen 
years. These children and youth were gathered from 
heathen homes and the streets of the great city. Many were 
in rags and tatters, indescribable and infested with vermin. 
Dr. Gamewell in his report to the Conference said: “At 
3 p. m. we have our heathen Sabbath school, as we designate 
it, composed of children gathered from heathen homes sur¬ 
rounding us. The attendance at times has been over five 
hundred, and the children in addition to learning many 
Christian hymns, have completed the shorter catechism. 
The influence of the school for good cannot be estimated. 
It has produced a marked difference in the attitude of the 
people in our neighborhood toward us, and the children in 
meeting us in the streets instead of reviling us, as formerly, 
ask, ‘When is Sunday?’ ” Sunday school teachers reported 
that instead of being greeted on the streets as formerly as 
“foreign devil,” they were saluted as “foreign teacher,” and 
not unfrequently they heard the singing of Christian hymns 
in the courts and hovels of the people. 

To the Great Wall 

Parting with Bishop Foster at the close of Conference 
and in company with Dr. H. H. Lowry, I made a trip to 
Tsunhua, our most northerly station, and the Great Wall, 


CHINA 


J 33 


the total distance being one hundred and seven miles. The 
first twelve miles was on a small boat on the Grand Canal 
to Tung-Chou, and thence by Chinese cart, drawn by two 
mules, driven tandem. The roads were indescribably bad 
and seldom or never repaired. When a track became im¬ 
passable the cart driver would make a new one on the 
adjoining territory. To protect themselves against such 
trespass, the farmers often dug deep ditches along the high¬ 
ways, as there was no material from which fences could 
be made. In many instances the roadway was cut into sandy 
earth several feet by wear of wheels, hoofs of mules, heavy 
rains, and driving winds. 

At Tsunhua our mission property consisted of two com¬ 
fortable residences, a boys’ and a girls’ boarding school, the 
latter belonging to the Woman’s Foreign Missionary So¬ 
ciety, a hospital, and a commodious new chapel. On the 
Sabbath I had the privilege of preaching the dedicatory 
sermon, Dr. Lowry interpreting. The congregation filled 
the chapel, and the day was one not to be forgotten. 

While at Tsunhua, in company with the missionaries, I 
visited the Great Wall, seven miles away. History informs 
us that it was commenced B. C. 214 and completed B. C. 204, 
ten years. It is fifteen hundred miles long and runs through 
a country which in large sections is mountainous. The wall 
goes over mountain heights and across valleys and plains and 
seemed as solid and strong as when it was first constructed. 
It is about thirty feet high, twenty-five feet wide at the 
base, and about twelve feet at the top, with balustrades three 
feet high on either side. The top is paved with brick tile 
and at intervals of about an eighth of a mile there are towers 
for the protection of soldiers when defending the wall 
against an alien enemy. At the point where our visit was 
made there was a wide breach in the wall, caused by the 


134 


THE STONE OF HELP 


overflow of a mountain stream. Originally, the stream had 
been spanned by immense granite rocks, hewn out of the 
neighboring mountains. 

Leaving Tsunhua, we continued our journey, eastward to 
Shanhaikuan, at the eastern terminus of the Great Wall, 
stopping on the way at Shaliuho, where a new chapel was 
dedicated, and where after the service a feast was served 
in Chinese fashion, chopsticks included. 

Arriving at Shanhaikuan, the terminus of the only rail¬ 
road then in operation in the Chinese empire, about one 
hundred miles long, we took train which brought us to 
Tientsin, where I joined Bishop Foster and where we took 
steamer for Shanghai. 

Viewed from the deck of our ship as it entered the harbor, 
the city of four hundred thousand, five thousand of whom 
were foreigners, had an Occidental rather than an Oriental 
appearance. In fact, there are two cities, one foreign and 
the other Chinese. The foreign city fronts on the harbor 
and occupies what is known as the foreign, or extraterri¬ 
torial, concession; that is, territory that has been ceded to 
foreign control. In this instance the concession is to Eng¬ 
land, America, and France, and is absolutely under foreign 
authority. The buildings, whether for business, official, 
or residential purposes, are more Western than Eastern in 
architecture. The streets are well made, clean, and are 
illuminated by electricity. There are great manufacturing, 
banking, and mercantile establishments, and the volume of 
business exceeds that of any other city in China. Many 
private residences are fairly palatial in appearance, and their 
grounds are beautiful as landscape artists can devise. 

A narrow street separates the foreign from the native 
city, which is surrounded by a high wall. The contrast 
between the foreign and the native city is very striking. 


CHINA 


T 35 

Immediately upon passing through the gateway into the 
streets, eyes, ears, and olfactories were assaulted with sights, 
sounds, and odors common to all Chinese cities, but not im¬ 
aginable to those who have not encountered them. The nar¬ 
row, filthy streets were crowded with people, a few of whom 
were elegantly costumed, while the multitude were in ragged, 
filthy garments. The deformed, the blind, the leprous, grope 
and hobble or lie helpless along the sides of the streets or 
against the city wall. Beggars swarm and dog one’s steps, 
thrusting their ragged, filthy, and vermin-infested bodies 
into one’s presence, refusing to be turned away until a few 
“cash” are obtained or until tired out by the unremunerative 
struggle. No more striking illustration of the difference 
between Oriental and Occidental civilization can be found 
than that presented in Shanghai. In temporal conditions the 
contrast is so great that to be appreciated it must be seen. 
In the foreign city there are residences grading from the 
comfortable to the palatial, excellent church and school 
buildings, embowered in rich, beautiful flowers, plants, and 
trees. The streets are clean, well-kept, and often bordered 
with flowers and shade trees, and there are parks and foun¬ 
tains suggestive of rest and comfort. In the native city there 
are one-story houses without windows; shops for all kinds 
of trade and toil opening upon the narrow, dirty, gutterless 
streets, in which crowds mingle and surge, and dogs and 
pigs are privileged to roam without fear of molestation. 
There are Taoist, Confucian, and Buddhist shrines and 
temples, in and about which are numerous worshipers and 
priests, who mumble prayers and perform tedious cere¬ 
monies. 

Central China Conference 

The Central China Conference is located in the valley of 
the Yangtze River and includes several populous cities, to- 


j 36 


THE STONE OF HELP 


gether with rich agricultural lands and mineral deposits. 
Work was commenced in Kiukiang on the Yangtze River, 
nearly five hundred miles from its entrance into the Yellow 
Sea in 1868, and was administered as a mission until 1907, 
when it was organized into a Mission Conference, and in 
1906 it became an Annual Conference. 

The mission held its annual session October 28 to No¬ 
vember 2, 1893, in Chinkiang, a city with a population of 
two hundred thousand. xMthough the work had been carried 
on for twenty-five years, the success in things spiritual had 
been meager. It should be remembered, however, that ma¬ 
terial interests can be more readily and definitely tabulated 
than the spiritual. The growth in material interests indi¬ 
cated that our work was strongly intrenched, giving assur¬ 
ance of permanency and increasing spiritual results. At the 
time of the annual meeting in 1893 we had at Chinkiang, 
one hundred and fifty miles from Shanghai, a fine location, 
with two residences, a commodious chapel, and a good school 
building, rapidly approaching completion. The Woman’s 
Foreign Missionary Society had a well-conducted hospital, 
a ladies’ home, a girls’ boarding school, and an orphanage. 
At Yangchow, a large walled city, fifteen miles north of 
Chinkiang, one of the best built and cleanest of Chinese cities 
it was my privilege to visit, we had during the previous year 
erected a new residence and opened work with encouraging 
prospects for success. 

Ascending the river fifty miles, we reached Nanking, once 
the capital of the empire, with a population of four million. 
The revolution that gave the throne to the then ruling 
dynasty, well-nigh destroyed the city and changed the capital 
to Peking. But the city had been partly rebuilt and at the 
time of our visit had a population of five hundred thousand. 

The mission property consisted of six residences, a first- 


CHINA 


x 37 


class hospital, the university group of buildings, consisting 
of the Fowler Theological School building, Sleeper Me¬ 
morial Chapel, Collins Dormitory, and a preparatory school 
building. These buildings were all of excellent architec¬ 
tural design and occupied a beautiful campus, inclosed by a 
brick wall. A short distance away was the compound of 
the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, upon which was 
located a ladies’ home and girls’ school building. 

Sixty miles further and we passed without stopping 
Wuhu, a city with a population of 200,000. From the deck 
of our steamer we had a fine view of our splendidly located 
hospital and two residences and the school building of the 
Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, situated on a bluff 
two miles below the city. The site is all that could be desired 
for healthfulness, but being so far from the city where 
the educational and evangelistic work was carried on, was 
somewhat inconvenient. And yet health considerations in 
Central China are of prime importance. 

Foochow Conference 

Leaving Kiukiang, we returned to Shanghai and took ship 
for Foochow, where the Foochow Conference met, No¬ 
vember 16, 1893, an d where our first mission in China was 
founded in 1847. 

The men and women who opened and carried forward 
the work under the most difficult and discouraging condi¬ 
tions during the first decade at the end of which the first 
convert was baptized, deserve to be held in perpetual remem¬ 
brance. They were Rev. Judson Dwight Collins, M.D., 
Rev. Moses Clark White and Mrs. White; Rev. Henry 
Hickock and Mrs. Hickock; Rev. Samuel Maclay and Mrs. 
Maclay; Rev. Isaac William Wiley, M.D., and Mrs. Wiley; 
Mrs. Mary Seely White; Rev. James Calder and Mrs, 


THE STONE OF HELP 


138 

Calder; Rev. Erastus Wentworth and Mrs. Wentworth; 
Rev. Otis Gibson and Mrs. Gibson. These missionaries 
started a movement that has spread over a large portion 
of what was the Chinese Empire and helped largely in 
bringing into existence what is now the 'Republic of China. 
The one convert of 1857 has become in 1914 about 40,000, 
which fulfills to overflowing Isaiah’s prophecy: “A little 
one shall become a thousand and a small one a strong 
nation” (Isa. 60. 22). 

Foochow Conference embraced a vast territory, including 
what has since become the Hinghwa Conference, and was 
divided into seven districts. Foochow is a city of about 
one million inhabitants, surrounded by a wall seven miles in 
circumference and located on the north bank of the Min 
River about thirty miles from its mouth. It is one of the 
five points opened in 1842 to foreigners and foreign com¬ 
merce. Our mission compound is situated on Nantai Island, 
on the south side of the main channel of the Min River, and 
is connected with the mainland by the “Bridge of ten thou¬ 
sand ages.” For picturesqueness and healthfulness it is all 
that could be desired, commanding, as it does, a fine view 
of neighboring mountains and of the walled city. 

The Foochow Conference closed November 22, 1893, an< 3 
concluded our official visitation of Conferences and missions 
in the Far East. Bishop Foster, while sometimes suffering 
from weariness, presided in each of the five Conferences and 
missions, and preached and delivered addresses of great 
fervor and power. His sincere sympathy with the mission¬ 
aries and his fatherly advice were of the most helpful 
character and were highly appreciated. One of the leading 
characteristics of the people of the Far East is their great 
respect for persons of venerable appearance. In this regard 
Bishop Foster measured up to their highest ideal, and 


CHINA 


139 


usually he received the most generous recognition from all 
classes. Even the emperor of Japan, who was being driven 
in his royal carriage through the street which passes our 
compound at Aoyama, Tokyo, seeing the bishop stand¬ 
ing with uncovered head, greeted him with a profound 
obeisance. 

Hongkong 

Most people in America suppose that Hongkong is the 
name of a city, located on an island just off the southern 
coast of China, when in fact it is the name of the island 
upon which stands the city of Victoria, with a population at 
the time of our visit of about two hundred and twenty-five 
thousand. The island consists of a rugged, mountainous 
tract about ten miles long, its greatest breadth being about 
four miles. The surface is broken by deep ravines and has 
several mountain peaks, some of which reach an altitude of 
eighteen hundred feet. The name of the island (Hong¬ 
kong) has been the cause of considerable discussion, owing 
to the fact that the Chinese characters that represent it, 
like many others, are susceptible of different meanings. The 
one having the greatest weight of authority gives it the 
significance of “Fragrant Streams,” which is highly appro¬ 
priate, as the island has long been noted for its pure, 
delicious waters. 

Hongkong has been a British colony since January 20, 
1841, when it was formally ceded to the British crown as 
a condition of peace ending the opium war which commenced 
in 1839. If China had suffered no other loss than the giving 
up of a small, desolate island, that had long been the rendez¬ 
vous for pirates and vagabonds, she would have had nothing 
to regret except the loss of prestige. But such was not the 
fact. A far greater calamity was the enforced opening of 


140 


THE STONE OF HELP 


several of her ports for the introduction of the opium traffic, 
by which poverty, disease, and death were sown broadcast 
among her vast population. That opium war placed a stain 
upon the union jack that all the waters that lave the shores 
of England’s vast possessions can never wash out. 

Canton 

Arriving at Hongkong November 30, and finding that 
we must wait eight days for a ship that would take us to 
San Francisco, we decided to use half the time at our dis¬ 
posal in visiting Canton, the chief city of Southern China, 
located on the Chu-kiang, or Pearl River, about one hundred 
miles by steamer from Hongkong. Canton at that time 
had a population estimated all the way from one million to 
two millions. Probably about one million five hundred 
thousand would have been a fair estimate of the number of 
inhabitants. It is the capital of the province of Kuang-tung, 
the place of residence of the viceroy and of other high mili¬ 
tary and civil officials. The city wall is six miles in circuit, 
and a cross wall divides the city into two unequal parts, 
known as the old and the new city. The average height 
of the wall is twenty-five feet and the width from fifteen to 
twenty-five feet. The wall that incloses the old city was 
commenced in the eleventh century and completed about 
1380. The new city was built in 1568. 

A day was profitably spent visiting places of special in¬ 
terest with Dr. Henry, of the Presbyterian Mission, as our 
guide, to whom and his good wife we were greatly in¬ 
debted both for generous hospitality and many kindly offices. 
We made the tour of the city in sedan chairs—the only 
satisfactory and safe way of accomplishing so difficult and 
for many reasons so unpleasant and yet so interesting a task. 
The streets were very narrow, and in the business parts 


CHINA 


141 

densely crowded with people on foot, in sedan chairs, and 
many more bore burdens of every possible character on 
poles, balanced on their shoulders, shouting at the top of 
their voices to clear the way, keeping up a pandemonium 
that cannot be described. The streets were paved with 
heavy flagstones, beneath which near the river front were 
gutters which at high tide were flushed, rendering them 
far less offensive in odors than is usual in the streets of 
Chinese cities. 

The temples were both numerous and famous. There 
were said to be eight hundred of these places of idolatrous 
worship, some of which were spacious and richly adorned. 
Among the most noted is the temple of “Five Hundred 
Disciples of Buddha,” around whose image, in life-size, 
gilded images of these disciples were grouped: the “Temple 
of Longevity”; the “Temple of Five Rams,” on which the 
five genii who preside over earth, fire, metals, water, and 
wood descended from heaven to Canton, bearing ears of 
corn and all other blessings; the “Emperor’s Temple,” and 
the “Temple of Horrors.” 

The Temple of Horrors is rightly named and represents 
the Buddhist idea of hell. As we entered there were on 
either side of the hall scenes representing the awful punish¬ 
ments inflicted upon non-Buddhistic sinners. The different 
kinds of punishment were of the most realistic and horrible 
character. Human forms, nearly life size, were in process 
of the most horrible tortures that fiendish imagination and 
infernal skill could invent and produce. They were being 
transmigrated into animals, ground between huge stones, 
boiled in oil, burned under a red hot bell, sawed in twain 
between two planks, bastinadoed, beheaded, etc. At the time 
of our visit there was present a large crowd of gamblers, 
prostitutes, beggars, and devoted, deluded worshipers. This 


142 


THE STONE OF HELP 


temple was said to be visited by a greater number of people 
than any other in the city. 

Returning to Hongkong, we sailed on the good ship 
Gaelic, December 7, and touching on the way at Amoy, 
Nagasaki, and Yokohama, arrived at San Francisco, Decem¬ 
ber 30, at 9.30 p. m. The first familiar voice that reached 
our ears was that of Bishop Goodsell, the then resident 
bishop of San Francisco, who heartily welcomed us to the 
city and to the generous hospitality of his home, where for 
two days we enjoyed the delightful social fellowship of him¬ 
self and family. Five days by rail brought us across the 
continent to our respective homes in Boston and New York, 
after an absence of seven months and twenty days, during 
which time we had traveled sixteen thousand miles by water 
and seven thousand miles by land, without the slightest 
accident or any serious inconvenience. We remembered 
with gratitude that it is written: “He shall give his angels 
charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall 
bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against 
a stone.” 


CHAPTER XIX 


CHINA 

(continued) 

Fourteen Years Later —1907 

When on my world-round journey, I arrived at Hong¬ 
kong March 25, 1907, fourteen years after the visit to 
China described in the foregoing chapter. 

I had parted with Bishop FitzGerald and family at 
Penang, Malaysia, where the Malaysia Conference was in 
session, February 22, and where a week later the Bishop’s 
daughter died of smallpox. The sickness and death of the 
daughter, together with his own failing health, made it 
necessary for him to abandon his purpose to visit the Philip¬ 
pine Islands and to go from Penang direct to Hongkong 
with the expectation of continuing his journey to San Fran¬ 
cisco. Upon my arrival at Hongkong I found the Bishop 
and his family—wife, son, and daughter—in a hotel, him¬ 
self in a very feeble condition, but still hoping to sail on 
April 9 for home. On the day following he was removed 
to the Government Hospital, where I visited him again on 
March 28. Although his strength was rapidly decreasing, 
he was still hopeful of continuing his homeward journey 
on the date above mentioned. Upon parting with him 
to continue my journey toward Shanghai I was deeply im¬ 
pressed with the thought that he was on his deathbed and 
that a few days would end the struggle. He died April 4, 
and his remains in a casket, accompanied by his family, 
crossed the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco upon the ship 

143 


144 


THE STONE OF HELP 


upon which he had engaged passage immediately upon his 
arrival at Hongkong. 

The Grave of Robert Morrison 

Finding that it would be four days before I could get a 
steamer on which to continue my journey up the coast, I 
decided to visit Macao, situated on an island belonging to 
Portugal, just off the southern coast of China, where 
Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to China, 
sleeps the last long sleep. Arriving at Macao, I found 
that the rikisha coolies knew the name of Morrison and the 
route to his grave. Not having been permitted to enter 
China as a missionary in 1807, the time of his arrival, he 
spent twenty-five years at Canton, in the employ of the 
East India Company, during which period he visited 
Malacca, where he founded the Anglo-Chinese College, and 
Macao, where he opened work among the Chinese. During 
these years he translated the Bible into Chinese, prepared 
a dictionary of the Chinese language, in six volumes, wrote 
and distributed vast numbers of tracts among the Chinese 
people, scattered throughout the islands of Malaysia. He 
died in 1834, having given twenty-seven years to the great 
task of opening the way for the thousands of missionaries 
now scattered throughout China. He baptized his first 
convert in 1814 and in 1835 the first church was organized 
with only three members. The visible results were small, 
but who can measure the value of the work he accom¬ 
plished ? 

Up the Coast 

A delay of fifty hours at Swatow, where our ship was 
discharging and receiving freight, afforded an excellent 
opportunity to visit the mission compounds of the English 


CHINA 


145 


Presbyterians and the American Baptist Union. The 
former is situated on the north and the latter on the south 
side of the bay, on a high, rocky bluff, where it is high 
and dry. Both missions were reported to be prosperous. 
The hours spent at Swatow included Easter Sunday, and 
several of the passengers on our ship went ashore and at¬ 
tended, because the most convenient, the Presbyterian serv¬ 
ice. The theme of the preacher, Dr. Gibson, was “The 
Resurrection of Our Lord,” and the sermon was thoroughly 
orthodox. The facts stated in the New Testament were 
so clearly and forcibly set forth that there was no room 
for doubt as to the belief of the apostles or of the apostolic 
church in the actual death and resurrection of Jesus of 
Nazareth. 

Twelve hours over a rough sea brought our ship to 
Amoy, where we were met by the Rev. W. N. Brewster, of 
our Hinghwa Mission, who had come to guide us on our 
further journey. Travel by land in America is suggestive 
of automobiles and Pullman palace cars, but in South China 
it means on foot or in a bamboo chair; through rice, wheat, 
and barley fields, over narrow, crooked roads or paths, 
paved with stones of all shapes and sizes, some of which 
have been washed away by floods and others piled in heaps, 
rendering it difficult for even the coolies to make their way. 
These roads or paths cross creeks and larger streams which 
were once spanned by bridges formed of granite slabs from 
twenty to thirty feet long, resting upon piers, many of the 
approaches to the bridges having been washed away by 
floods and never repaired. In numerous instances the 
stones and granite slabs had been removed from their 
former positions and were lying in piles in the channels. 
Upon these stones travelers crossed on foot when the 
streams were low. Often we ascended hills and crossed one 


THE STONE OF HELP 


146 

mountain range, a considerable part of the way climbing 
rude, irregular stone steps. Over these roads and paths we 
traveled for six days, covering a distance of one hundred 
and fifty miles. We slept three nights in native village 
chapels, and our meals were served in primitive fashion by 
a coolie. Our route lay much of the way through valleys 
thickly studded with villages and towns, varying in popula¬ 
tion from a few hundred to several thousand. Sometimes 
several of these villages and towns were in the range of 
vision at the same moment. 

As in a desert there are sometimes found oases, where 
fountains bubble, flowers bloom, and palm trees spread 
their sheltering fronds, so in the desert of filth, degrada¬ 
tion, and idolatry through which we were journeying there 
was an occasional oasis, where fountains of the water of 
life were flowing and flowers of a clean, Christian civiliza¬ 
tion were blooming and spreading abroad their healthful 
fragrance. The first oasis found in this part of our journey 
was at Singiu, where the Woman’s Foreign Missionary 
Society has an excellent hospital, a missionary residence, a 
girls’ boarding school, and a school for women. The Board 
of Foreign Missions has a boys’ boarding school, a church 
edifice that would accommodate eight hundred people, and 
parsonages for the presiding elder and native pastor. The 
church edifice and the hospital were erected by the late Mrs. 
W. A. Gamble, of Cincinnati, Ohio, the former a memorial 
to her father, the Rev. William Nast, D.D., and the latter 
in memory of her mother. The buildings were all well 
located and well preserved and the grounds tastefully 
adorned with flowering plants and trees. Although the 
weather was inclement, it was my privilege to preach to a 
large congregation, my message being followed with an 
excellent address by my traveling companion, the Rev. 


CHINA 


147 


Rockwell Clancy, of the Northwest India Conference. The 
Rev. W. N. Brewster, who speaks the Hinghwa dialect like 
a native, was our interpreter. 

Hinghwa City 

The second oasis was found at Hinghwa City, the center 
of our work in the Hinghwa Annual Conference, where 
there are a spacious church edifice, seating one thousand 
people, a theological training school, boys’ boarding school, 
Rebecca McCabe Boys’ and Girls’ Orphanage, and four 
comfortable missionary residences, one of which was just 
approaching completion. There is also a printing plant, 
where a considerable quantity of Christian literature is 
published, and in the orphanage quite an extensive work in 
weaving is carried on by the children. Here also are an 
excellent boarding school for girls, a school for women, 
and a missionary residence belonging to the Woman’s 
Foreign Missionary Society. 

In Hinghwa we spent a delightful Sabbath, the memory 
of which has since lingered like the sweet fragrance of 
flowers. It was the occasion of a Quarterly Meeting, and 
several native preachers from surrounding circuits were 
present. The love feast at nine o’clock in the morning was 
largely attended, and the testimonies were prompt, numer¬ 
ous, and definite. Brother Brewster sat at my side and 
interpreted the testimonies. There was not a note of 
doubt or uncertainty. They knew that the gospel they had 
heard from the lips of the missionaries was the power of 
God unto salvation, and they gave joyful “testimonies unto 
the word of his grace.” 

At the public service the house was crowded to the limit 
of its capacity and many were unable to gain admittance. 
It had been my privilege to preach to many peoples of many 


148 


THE STONE OF HELP 


tongues, but I had rarely, if ever, faced a more attentive 
congregation or preached the gospel where the presence 
of the Holy Spirit was more markedly realized. 

The third oasis was at Ngucheng, where there were a 
missionary residence and commodious church edifice and a 
good boys’ high school building; also a girls’ school, school 
for women, and a well-planned hospital building nearing 
completion under the supervision of the Woman’s Foreign 
Missionary Society. In several of the villages and towns 
through which we passed there were smaller oases, where 
the waters were beginning to flow and the flowers to bloom. 
There were chapels and primary schools under the care of 
Chinese pastors and teachers, where the good news was 
being proclaimed and the children instructed, not only in the 
rudiments of a secular education, but also in the doctrines 
of the Christian religion. 

Having already given an account of our work in Foo¬ 
chow, I need only to say that I spent one week in that city, 
and was delighted to note on every hand and in every de¬ 
partment of the work the splendid progress that had been 
made in the fourteen intervening years since my previous 
visit. Then the schools were cramped for room; now the 
accommodations were more adequate. Then we worshiped 
in a small church edifice that would accommodate about 
four hundred; now in a plain, brick edifice with a seating 
capacity for twelve hundred, in which I was privileged 
to preach on Sabbath morning to a congregation of one 
thousand people. Then there were few chapels in the 
towns and villages of the Foochow Conference; now they 
are numerous. Then there were very few primary schools; 
now there are one hundred and fifty. Then there were few 
ordained native preachers, now there are fifty-nine, with a 
large increase in local preachers and exhorters. 


CHAPTER XX 


CHINA 

(continued) 

The China Centenary Conference 

This Conference was so thoroughly representative of 
the Christian forces at work in the Chinese empire, and its 
conclusions so important, that I deem it worth while to give 
a careful summary, made by the writer at the time, of its 
proceedings. The Conference was composed of representa¬ 
tives of the more than fifty boards in Europe and America 
having work in China and of their missionaries on the field. 
The Conference was a mountain top from which a splendid 
and inspiring view could be obtained of the progress of 
Christianity in the greatest non-Christian empire on the 
earth, since Robert Morrison became the first Protestant 
missionary to that empire. 

The China Centenary Conference convened in Martyrs’ 
Memorial Hall, Shanghai, April 25, 1907, at 2.30 p. m. 
The hall is in the new building of the Chinese Young Men’s 
Christian Association, erected as a memorial to the mis¬ 
sionaries who had been martyred in China since 1807. 

Church Unity 

On the first day the Committee on “The Chinese Church” 
presented a report in which is fully discussed the status of 
the Christian Church in China and also offered a series of 
resolutions for adoption. Against one resolution, in which 
the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed were mentioned 

149 


THE STONE OF HELP 


150 

with approval, strong opposition was made by the “no¬ 
creed” delegates. The somewhat intense debate resulted 
in the adoption of the following: 

That the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the supreme 
standards of faith and practice; that, while acknowledging the Apostles’ 
Creed and the Nicene Creed as substantially expressing the funda¬ 
mental doctrines of the Christian faith, the Conference does not adopt 
any creed as a basis of church unity, and leaves the confessional 
question to the judgment of the Chinese church for future considera¬ 
tion; that the only desire of the missionaries is to plant one Holy 
Catholic Church in China, under the sole control of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, “governed by the Word of the living God and led by his guid¬ 
ing Spirit”; and that the liberty in Christ of the Chinese Church is 
fully recognized and committed to the safe-keeping of its Lord, until 
the time shall arrive when it shall pass beyond the control of the 
missionaries into the hands of the Chinese Christians. The home 
churches are requested to sanction the missionaries’ recognition of the 
right of the Chinese churches to organize themselves into independent 
churches in accordance with their own views of truth and duty, 
suitable arrangements being made for due representation of the mis¬ 
sionaries on their governing bodies, until such time as the churches 
shall be in a position to assume self-support and self-government. 

The Chinese Ministry 

The second day of the Conference was devoted to the 
subject of the education and training of Chinese ministers. 
The conclusions reached may be summarized as follows: 

That Chinese ministers must have such culture and character as 
will qualify them to take rank among the leaders of new China; that 
this matter should be brought to the attention of the Chinese Church; 
that parents should be urged to give their sons to the ministry, and 
that teachers in Christian schools should give special prominence to 
this important question; that, while persons who have had imperfect 
training may be received into the ministry, they should not be depended 
upon as the only source of supply; and that, while in theological 
schools the teachings should center in the Bible and in the person and 
work of Christ, there should be a broad and comprehensive scope of 
instruction, including the study of other religions and other forms of 
ethical thought. It was recommended that theological teaching should 
be in the vernacular of the people among whom students are expected 


CHINA 


151 

to labor, and that summer schools for training ministers should be 
held whenever practicable. It was further recommended that great 
care be exercised in selecting men for the pastoral office and that the 
churches even in their poverty and weakness should take up the burden 
of supporting their ministry. The adequate endowment of theological 
schools and the cooperation of different denominations in theological 
teaching were approved. 

Christian Education 

The sessions of the third day were devoted to the con¬ 
sideration of Christian education and were deeply interest¬ 
ing. There were present several presidents of colleges, uni¬ 
versities, and theological schools, all of whom ably set forth 
the need for an advance in educational work, at this time 
when China is waking from the sleep of centuries. The 
government is founding schools for higher education that 
are non-Christian in their management, the students being 
required to perform acts of idolatrous worship, and no 
teacher being employed who is unwilling to participate in 
ancestral worship. These schools are imperfectly and 
loosely organized and the methods of instruction are in¬ 
efficient. In view of these conditions, the Conference urged 
that mission boards provide more liberal support for schools 
already in existence, and found new ones in needy places; 
that union in school work be inaugurated whenever prac¬ 
ticable; that overlapping and duplication be avoided; that 
normal schools be founded in all the provinces; that schools 
be provided for the deaf and dumb, for the blind and for 
beggar children. The Conference further urged that the 
Young Men’s Christian Association carry on work among 
the students and enlarge its forces to meet this need more 
adequately. 

Evangelization 

The fourth day was occupied in considering the question 
of the speedy evangelization of China’s four hundred 


152 


THE STONE OF HELP 


million inhabitants—a stupendous undertaking. In the 
resolutions adopted after a discussion of four hours, the 
following facts are noted: 

1. Every individual in the empire may now be reached by a gospel 
messenger. 

2. An appeal was made to the whole Christian world to rise in its 
might and to realize more adequately the responsibility in this gigantic 
undertaking. It was recommended that a careful estimate be made 
of the number of workers needed and of the funds necessary to accom¬ 
plish this result; and that a committee be appointed to transmit its find¬ 
ings to Christendom. 

3. In view of the fact that the time has come when Chinese Chris¬ 
tians, who have done much already, should assume a much larger 
responsibility in the evangelization of their own people, a forward 
movement, on a scale hitherto unknown, was recommended for the 
accomplishment of this end. 

4. Native Christians were called upon to devote time and money 
to evangelization in places beyond their own homes. 

5. It was recommended that schools be established in which men 
and women can obtain such knowledge of the Scriptures as will fit 
them for evangelistic effort. 

6. Every missionary, whether pastor, doctor, or teacher, should be 
first and foremost an evangelist. 

7. The Chinese colporteur is a pioneer in the promulgation of the 
gospel, and only men of undoubted piety, zeal, and fitness should be 
employed in this kind of work. 

8. The value of tract literature is great, but the supply of tracts of 
an experimental character is very small. Tract societies were urged 
to make a special effort to supply this deficiency. 

9. The Conference earnestly recommended that special effort be 
made to reach the influential classes, and suggested that popular 
lectures, reading rooms, debating societies, and museums be used to 
secure this end. 


Women's Work 

The fifth day was given to the work under the care of 
women and proved to be of special interest, as the report 


CHINA 


153 


was presented by the chairman of a committee of women 
and the discussion was carried on largely by women. The 
resolutions adopted recommended: 

That the whole Bible be prepared in standard Romanized Mandarin 
and in the other languages of China, in which it does not exist in 
that form, in order that women may have access to the sacred Scrip¬ 
tures and may become familiar with their teachings; that women 
should not be admitted to baptism until they are fully emancipated 
from heathen rites and customs, for which purpose a year is con¬ 
sidered none too long a term of probation; that Christian women 
should be enlisted in the fight against opium, impurity, foot-binding, 
the destruction of girl babies, and early betrothals; that only women 
of good report since conversion should be set apart as Bible women, 
and that these should be carefully trained for their great work in 
schools established for that purpose. 

It was further resolved that Christian schools should give special 
attention to spiritual development and to the strengthening of con¬ 
science and character, so that young women may be prepared to meet 
the temptations and responsibilities of the new condition in China, 
and that to this end schools for girls should enlarge their scope, open¬ 
ing their doors to non-Christians more freely than they have done 
in the past. It was urged that mission boards should unite in establish¬ 
ing in central localities a few well-equipped colleges and normal schools, 
thus making it possible for young women to acquire in their native 
land and under Christian influences the education demanded by the 
times. Kindergarten training schools were highly recommended, as 
there is no place where Christian influence counts for more than in 
the training of little children. 

Christian Literature 

The forenoon of the sixth day was occupied by a con¬ 
sideration of the great need for a large increase in the 
number of Christian books, newspapers, magazines, and 
tracts. That there is an unprecedented intellectual awaken¬ 
ing among the people was conceded by all. The people 
are learning to read, and if they are not supplied with 
wholesome literature, they will use what is unwholesome 
and harmful. The resolutions adopted call special attention 


154 


THE STONE OF HELP 


to the fact that there is a great influx of materialistic litera¬ 
ture from Japan, which makes it necessary to set apart 
able men in China who shall devote all their time to the 
production of a literature that shall be distinctly and posi¬ 
tively Christian. A strong appeal is made to missionary 
societies to furnish enough money to carry on this work. 
To help supply this need the organization of local religious 
literature committees and the opening of bookstores was 
recommended. A reference library at some central point 
was proposed as also the collection of funds for the pur¬ 
chase of books. 


Ancestral Worship 

On the afternoon of the sixth day ancestral worship was 
under consideration and was condemned as idolatrous. In 
the course of the debate liberal views were expressed which 
were designed to palliate the practice on the ground that it 
is scarcely more than a proper manifestation of respect for 
the departed, but the paper adopted declared: 

The worship of ancestors is incompatible with an enlightened and 
spiritual conception of the Christain faith and therefore cannot be 
tolerated as a practice in the Christian Church; Christianity makes 
provision for the highest expression of “filial piety,” but is free from 
any taint of idolatry. Instead of erecting memorial arches, a very 
popular heathen custom, Chinese Christians are recommended to erect 
useful memorials to parents and other ancestors by building or endow¬ 
ing churches, schools, hospitals, asylums, or other charitable institu¬ 
tions, as is common in all Christian lands, thus making memorials to 
the dead a means of helping the living through successive generations. 

Medical Work 

The seventh day was wholly given up to the considera¬ 
tion of medical missions, which were held to be an integral 
part of the missionary work of the Christian Church. The 
resolutions included the following recommendations: 


CHINA 


155 


That medical missionaries should receive their commission from the 
home societies in a public and unmistakable way, and should be 
solemnly set apart as missionaries of the church; that no partially 
equipped men or women should be appointed, and that medical mis¬ 
sionaries should have the best possible training before going to the 
field, so that the work done may be of a high standard. It is held 
that the medical missionary should have his first two years on the 
field free from responsibilities, and should pass examinations not less 
searching than those for his clerical colleagues; that evangelistic work 
among hospital patients should be under the direction of the physician 
in charge, who should be a practical evangelist; and that the energies 
of medical missionaries should be concentrated as much as possible 
on indoor patients. The home churches were urged to develop this 
branch of work by increased support of missionary hospitals. For 
the reason that it detracts largely from the usefulness of a physician 
if he must seek means of support by private practice or otherwise, the 
home churches are urged to give full support to their medical missions. 
Missionary societies were requested to provide support for suitable 
men who shall devote their time to translating and publishing medical 
books. 

All missions in China are exhorted to combat the opium traffic and 
habit in every possible way, and for this purpose to establish opium 
refuges wherever practicable. Finally, the Conference put on record an 
expression of thankfulness to Almighty God for the abundant blessings 
bestowed upon medical missions, and registered appeals to the churches 
in the home lands to send forth consecrated men and women, fully 
qualified to carry on and to extend this beneficent work. 

Bible Translation 

On the eighth day the Conference considered the various 
questions that relate to the translation of the Holy Scrip¬ 
tures into Chinese. The fact that so many different dia¬ 
lects are spoken by the Chinese people makes the question 
of translation a very difficult one. The Conference decided 
to concentrate its efforts upon one standard union Bible 
in Chinese, in two versions—Wenli and Mandarin—and 
the executive committee was instructed to select five mis¬ 
sionaries qualified to do the work of translation. An 
appeal is to be made to mission boards to whom the selected 


THE STONE OF HELP 


156 

translators may belong, to relieve them from other duties 
so that they may give themselves to this work as completely 
as possible. The Bible societies working in China are to 
be urged to provide the funds needed to pay such expenses 
as may be incurred. The Conference expressed its grati¬ 
tude to the Bible societies for the generous help they have 
given in carrying out the translation program undertaken 
by the Conference of 1890. The importance of the Sunday 
school as a method of imparting Bible instruction was 
recognized and the election of a secretary to devote his 
whole time to Sunday school work throughout China was 
recommended. 


Comity and Federation 

The ninth day was perhaps the most strenuous of the 
entire Conference, the questions considered being comity 
and federation. The chairman of the committee having the 
subjects in charge made the opening address, in which he 
expressed radical views concerning creeds and ecclesiastical 
organizations. These views proved to be very distasteful 
to many and brought forth emphatic protests, making it 
necessary for the speaker to eliminate the objectionable 
parts of his address. 

The resolutions adopted approve of a “Federal Union” of the 
various denominations for the purpose of establishing the kingdom of 
God in China. Toward the accomplishment of this end councils are 
to be instituted in provinces or groups of provinces, and these are 
to meet at least once in two years. A National Representative Council 
will also be organized, to meet at least once in five years. This National 
Representative Council is to act as a “consultative and advisory body 
only,” and is to constitute a medium for the expression of Christian 
opinion in China, to encourage everything that will demonstrate the 
essential unity of Christians, and to endeavor to secure cooperation 
and more effective work throughout the whole empire. 


CHINA 


157 


The Missionary and Public Questions 

The tenth and last day of the Conference was given to 
a consideration of the relation of the missionary to public 
questions. 

People at home have but a slight realization of the difficult and 
delicate responsibilities devolving upon missionaries in regard to 
questions that arise out of their relation to the Chinese government 
and the persecution of native Christians by their pagan neighbors. 
Missionaries are in danger of being charged with hostility to the 
government if they attempt to shield their converts from unjust 
punishment; and if they refuse to do so, they are charged with allow¬ 
ing innocent people to suffer. The action taken recognizes the obliga¬ 
tion of missionaries to the government and expresses the hope that 
intervention for the protection of Chinese Christians may soon become 
wholly unnecessary. At the same time Chinese Christians are advised 
to endure persecution with patience and forbearance for Christ’s sake, 
and to make every possible effort to settle their difficulties privately, 
appealing to the magistrate only as a last resort. 

In the resolutions adopted the missionaries are urged to be true to 
the government and to discountenance any plottings against the govern¬ 
ment on the part of the native Christians or any participation in the 
plottings of others; and they are requested to charge the native Chris¬ 
tians that such a course is not only dangerous but also disloyal and 
unchristian. 

A committee was appointed for the purpose of calling 
the attention of the government to the fact that Roman 
Catholics and Protestants differ essentially, both in doctrine 
and in practice, and particularly requesting that in all cases 
of litigation or of appeal for protection these classes be 
carefully distinguished and each dealt with on its own 
merits. This committee was also enjoined to petition the 
government to abolish the religious tests which at present 
exclude all Christians from governmental schools and make 
it impossible for a Christian to hold any official position. 

After a careful study of the resolutions adopted, the 
writer is fully satisfied that no serious mistake was made. 


158 


THE STONE OF HELP 


and that the interests of the kingdom of God in China were 
markedly advanced. 

China Central Conference 

The China Central Conference of the Methodist Epis¬ 
copal Church met in Shanghai, May 8, 1907, Bishop J. W. 
Bashford presiding. This Conference is a delegated body, 
made up of missionaries, native ministers, and laymen from 
the five Conferences and missions in China. In language it 
is trilingual, which makes the transaction of business some¬ 
what difficult and very tedious. All motions, resolutions, 
reports, and speeches must be put into three languages—or 
rather, one language (English) and two Chinese dialects. 
While the Conference has no legislative authority, it does 
have supervision of many important local interests, such as 
the erection of buildings, the management of schools, hos¬ 
pitals, publishing interests, etc. It serves also to unify the 
administration of the work in all parts of the country. 

One of the features of the session was a long and 
strenuous discussion on the question of episcopal super¬ 
vision in China. All were enthusiastic over the administra¬ 
tion of Bishop Bashford, and the Conference passed a 
unanimous vote in favor of his continuance during the 
ensuing quadrennium. The outcome of the debate was 
the adoption of a memorial to the General Conference re¬ 
questing that two general superintendents be assigned to 
China for the next quadrennium. 


CHAPTER XXI 

CHINA 

(continued) 

Modern China 

In many respects modern China is the same as the China 
of centuries ago. In area, including her dependencies, four 
million two hundred and eighteen thousand four hundred 
and one square miles, equal to the “sum total area of the 
United States, the provinces of Ontario and Quebec and 
half of Mexico”—the third largest in the world, being ex¬ 
ceeded by only the British and the Russian empires. For 
fertility of soil China has no equal. 

But China’s greatest wealth is in her people—“the most 
ancient, numerous, and homogeneous” race on the planet, 
numbering more than four hundred millions. Neither fer¬ 
tility of soil nor mineral resources are of practical value 
unless there are people to develop and use them. The 
Chinese have great physical, intellectual, and moral re¬ 
sources. Physically they are scarcely equaled among the 
races of men. Their power of physical endurance is mar¬ 
velous. 

Intellectually, they have latent, dormant possibilities that 
will yet become actualities. They have already produced 
many scholars of great distinction, and there is mental ma¬ 
terial for millions more. Superstitious? Yes, he is weighted 
with superstition. One sees the evidences of it everywhere. 
When I first entered the country their superstitions were 
amusing, but it was not long until they became a depressing 
and intolerable burden. The very atmosphere was supposed 

159 


160 THE STONE OF HELP 

to be the habitation of devils and evil spirits, against the 
devices of which they sought protection. Walking along 
a street of Peking, in company with a missionary, I noticed 
an occasional plain, brick wall, standing several feet from 
the doorway to a court. My thought was that the wall was 
designed for the support of a protection to the door against 
heat and storm. But seeing no indication of such use, I 
asked my missionary friend for an explanation. The reply 
was that the wall was built to keep devils out of the houses. 
The people believed that a devil can go only a straight line. 
Should one attempt to enter a house guarded by a wall, he 
could not go round either end of it, nor could he go over 
the top, and consequently could not enter the door. But in 
spite of all their efforts, devils do get into houses. A seri¬ 
ous illness or a death or some other trouble occurs and it is 
attributed to the presence of a devil. Something must be 
done. A priest is called in who surveys the dwelling and 
determines how much the family can probably afford to 
pay. The price is fixed, and at the appointed time the 
priest returns with his retinue, carrying an earthen jar and 
goes from room to room searching for the intruder until 
finally he is cornered and compelled to enter the jar, which 
is promptly and securely closed, and carried in triumph to 
a temple where there are supposed to be many imprisoned 
devils. 


The Morning Dawn 

The long, dark night is being succeeded by the morning 
dawn. Since the boxer uprising, in 1900, and more espe¬ 
cially since the republic was proclaimed in 1912, there has 
been the beginning of a new day. The masses of the 
Chinese people are awakening from the slumber of many 
centuries and they are greatly bewildered by the dawning 


CHINA 


161 


light. The ancient educational system is suppressed and 
modern schools for the youth of the land are being opened. 
Heathen temples are being converted into schoolhouses, but 
the schools are very imperfectly organized, poorly supplied 
with textbooks, and, as a rule, presided over by incompetent 
teachers. Colleges and universities are in process of found¬ 
ing and installation, but they are largely in a chaotic condi¬ 
tion. A new military system has been established, but has 
not reached anything like nation-wide efficiency. A consti¬ 
tutional form of government has been attempted only to be 
succeeded by a dictatorship. The throne has crumbled, but 
a presidential chair has assumed monarchal prerogatives. 
The emperor is succeeded by the dictator. The empire is 
no more, but the republic follows imperial methods. 

For the present and for an indefinite period, Yuan Shih- 
Kai is as absolute a monarch as ever occupied the throne 
of China. The China of to-day is a republic in name, but 
a monarchy in fact. For forty centuries the people of China 
have been living under a monarchy. The monarchical 
system has constituted the warp and woof of their national 
life, and they cannot reconstruct that life in a day, or a 
year, or a decade. To change from an empire to a republic 
in name is easy, but to change four hundred million people 
from being subjects of an absolute monarchy to citizenship 
in a republic is a tremendous task. 

Recent reliable statistics indicate the wide distribution 
of gospel leaven. There have been distributed 35,000,000 
volumes of the Holy Scriptures. There is a total Protestant 
membership in the republic of 470,000. There are 5,452 
missionaries from Europe and America; 548 ordained 
Chinese pastors; 5,364 unordained workers; 1,789 Bible 
women; 4,712 Chinese Christian school teachers, and 496 
native Christians employed in hospitals. Other Christian 


THE STONE OF HELP 


162 

workers in evangelical churches bring the total Chinese 
staff giving their time to the service of Christianity, up to 
15,501. There are 2,955 Christian congregations, and the 
Christian Chinese contributed during 1913, $320,900 for 
Christian work among their own people. 

The Christian Press 

From the beginning of our foreign missionary work the 
press has been used as an agency for the diffusion of Chris¬ 
tian literature among the peoples of non-Christian lands. 
In Foochow, Shanghai, Peking, and other places this agency 
has been employed and with marked success. The Board 
of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
entered into partnership with the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, in establishing a Publishing House in 
Shanghai, in 1903, which has become a great power for 
the dissemination of Christian truth. The Rev. W. H. 
Lacy represents our board in the joint management of the 
house. The disturbed condition of the country by reason 
of the revolution which has changed China from a mon¬ 
archy to a republic, at least in name, has to some extent 
interfered with the prosperity of the house, but not so 
largely as was at one time anticipated. With the return 
of peace, business will again become prosperous. The 
branch house at Foochow, which fills an important place, 
has been but little affected by the revolution. 

Probably there is no one agency more effective than the 
Christian press in putting the gospel leaven into the heart 
and brain of China’s millions. “The kingdom of heaven is 
like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three 
measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” The leaven 
is silently doing its work and will ultimately transform 
the lump. 


CHAPTER XXII 


FOREIGNERS IN THE FAR EAST 

Foreigners in Japan and China are already numerous, 
and their number is rapidly increasing. They are largely, 
but not wholly, from England, Germany, Scandinavia, and 
America. In the seaports and principal cities of Japan and 
China one meets representatives of all nations and races, 
but those from the countries named are the most numerous 
and influential. They are there for various reasons and 
different purposes. Some are criminals, having escaped 
from their native countries to avoid merited punishment, 
hiding under assumed names and living in luxury or squalor, 
as financial resources may permit or necessity require. 

Many of these foreigners are globe-trotters, sight-seers, 
or adventurers, who have plenty of money to spend and 
are simply bent on having a good time. They are mere 
“birds of passage,” who do not tarry long enough in any 
one place to make an impression for good or, fortunately, 
to make a strong impression for evil. There are those who 
are studying social problems as related to different types 
of civilization and various systems of government; also 
the manners and customs of the people. Many are there 
on a purely business basis, and are doing their utmost to 
amass fortunes without any special regard for the honesty 
or morality of the methods they employ. There is still 
another important class who are there for none of the 
objects enumerated, but with an unselfish desire and purpose 

163 


164 


THE STONE OF HELP 


to elevate the people among whom they live and labor to 
the plane of a true Christian life and civilization; they are 
the missionaries who represent the leading evangelical 
ecclesiastical bodies of the Christian world. These various 
types may all be grouped into three general divisions: 

1. Those who are quite oblivious to all moral obligations, 
though not addicted to grossly immoral habits, and those 
who are recklessly and viciously bad and apparently living 
only for the gratification of the baser passions and appetites 
of their depraved natures. 

Unfortunately, the number of these is so large that in 
the eyes of the better class of natives they are regarded as 
representative of Western civilization. They are so entirely 
indifferent to principles of morality and honesty in business 
matters, or so utterly abandoned to vicious habits in social 
life, that they are at once a menace to business integrity 
and to public and social morality. They not only practice 
dishonest methods in business or lead dissolute lives socially, 
but by their example they neutralize the good influences 
which their fellow countrymen, with higher and nobler 
aims, seek to exert. They curl the lip of scorn at business 
integrity and ridicule virtue. They treat with contempt 
Christian laymen who put their principles into business 
methods and they hate missionaries who condemn their dis¬ 
honest and immoral practices. They either entirely ignore 
the work of the missionary and the Christian laymen or 
openly and loudly assert that the efforts of both are dismal 
failures, and even deny that any converts are made. With 
brazen effrontery they declare that missionaries and lay 
workers are no better than themselves, and that their 
absence would be no loss to the native population, or, turn¬ 
ing upon them the cold shoulder and discounting their 
efforts, do all in their power to thwart their beneficent pur- 


FOREIGNERS IN THE FAR EAST 


165 

poses and plans. Such people are a disgrace to the coun¬ 
tries they bless by their absence and a menace to such as 
must endure their presence. 

2. Those who maintain respectable standards of living and 
while they identify themselves only slightly and coldly with 
the Christian cause, do nothing directly to damage it. Many 
of these when at home are respectable but somewhat formal 
church members; but in the Far East they scarcely do more 
than to look upon the Christian propaganda from a distance 
and coldly patronizing viewpoint. They are upon their 
arrival in a community, where their own or kindred nation¬ 
alities are numerously represented, caught in the “swim” of 
worldly society, and soon the meagre religious zeal that 
characterized their lives at home is abated and they are 
almost ashamed to acknowledge that they are church mem¬ 
bers. They will, if it is convenient and they are not too 
weary by reason of travel or amusements, or if not invited 
to join an excursion to a place of special interest, or to 
attend a social function accompanied by a luxurious dinner, 
attend occasionally on the Holy Sabbath upon religious 
service, provided there is some special attraction in the line 
of highly artistic music or sensational discourse. Their 
pity is not stirred by the idolatries of the people nor is their 
sympathy aroused by the heroic sacrifices of Christian 
workers. They come and they go. If no one has been 
harmed by their presence, neither has any one been helped, 
and they return to their respective countries on a lower 
plane of moral and spiritual life than when they departed. 
These people might greatly help the Christian cause in non- 
Christian lands, even by brief visits, if they had the neces¬ 
sary courage and consecration. If upon their arrival among 
non-Christian peoples they would let it be known that first 
of all they are Christians and that all pleasures and amuse- 


THE STONE OF HELP 


166 

ments must harmonize with that fact, they would not only 
save themselves from spiritual deterioration but would 
be a real and potent inspiration to the Christian cause. 
Having heartily identified themselves with Christ and his 
servants on the mission field, and having become informed 
of the needs and importance of the work being done, they 
would return to their homes to inspire others with new zeal 
and increased liberality, and by so doing hasten the conquest 
of the non-Christian world to Him whose right it is to reign. 

3. But there is yet another division to be mentioned, and 
the most important of all, without which the non-Chris¬ 
tian world would be a desert without an oasis—nay, even 
a waste, howling wilderness. They are the foreign resi¬ 
dents, tourists, and missionaries who are living and working 
wherever they are to establish and upbuild the kingdom of 
God. It was a great delight to the writer to meet and for 
a brief time enjoy the fellowship on those distant shores of 
resident laymen, tourists, and missionaries who were un¬ 
swerving in their loyalty and devotion to Christ and his 
cause. “In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation 
among whom they shine as lights in the world, holding 
forth the word of life,” they are worthy of all honor. The 
laity at home should remember always in their prayers their 
brethren who are in the dark lands of the world, engaged 
in business, not so much for the money they make, as for 
the purpose of illustrating a high business morality, so little 
known among the native peoples. 

I wish I were capable of paying the high tribute they 
deserve to the Protestant missionaries in the Far East who 
are engaged in all departments of Christian effort—found¬ 
ing churches, printing presses, schools of all grades, hos¬ 
pitals, orphanages, and, most important of all, bringing into 
existence the Christian home. 


FOREIGNERS IN THE FAR EAST 167 

It has been the privilege of the writer to mingle with 
Christian missionaries and workers on all the continents of 
the world, except one (South America), in all departments 
of activity, and among all Protestant denominations, and 
of noting their spirit and conduct, and he cheerfully and 
with a warm heart bears testimony to their purity, fidelity, 
industry, patience, ability, and hopefulness. There is more 
real union and less friction among them than any equal 
number of people I have ever known. There is prevalent 
a cooperation, especially of the kind that permits the cross¬ 
ing of denominational lines in work and worship, such as 
is too infrequently found even in Christian lands. I can 
think of no greater sacrifice than that which is made by 
men and women who go to the abodes and abysses of 
darkness and degradation of heathen lands and settle 
down to devote their lives to toil where they are not only 
not wanted but where they are often despised and reviled, 
and where in many instances they are in danger of violent 
deaths. It is inconceivable that such a decision could be 
made for a money consideration, and the more from the 
fact that they receive but a mere and often scant subsistence. 
One would be mercenary indeed if even a princely salary 
could induce one to live amid such conditions and perform 
such labors and endure such indignities. 

Let no man who gives money for foreign missions think 
that he makes sacrifice, but let him rather give thanks to 
God that he is permitted to hold up the hands of these 
heroes and heroines who stand in the forefront of the great¬ 
est conflict that ever was waged. Let the church be assured 
that it is represented in these great foreign fields by as brave 
and grand a band of soldiers as the Christian centuries 
have known. 


CHAPTER XXIII 


CUBA AND PORTO RICO—1899 

At a meeting of the Board of Managers of the Mission¬ 
ary Society, held January 17, 1899, I was commissioned to 
go to Cuba and Porto Rico, in company with Bishop W. X. 
Ninde, to examine into the conditions of the people of those 
islands and ascertain the opportunities for evangelistic 
effort on their behalf. In 1898 the United States had 
delivered these islands from the oppressive and galling yoke 
of Spain and the Roman Catholic Church which had been 
worn for four hundred years. 

The population of the island previous to the revolution 
was estimated at 1,631,687. At the time of the American 
occupation the population was probably not quite 1,000,000, 
showing a loss during the revolution of about 33 1-3 per 
cent. 

By reason of the excessive taxation imposed by Spain the 
masses of the people were very poor, all industry, except 
what was necessary for mere existence, having been 
paralyzed. If crops were produced or industries of any 
kind were pursued, the heavy taxes turned the profits into 
the coffers of their oppressors. 

Illiteracy 

The educational interests of the island were nominally 
under the control of Spain, but actually under the control 
of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. As far back as 1721 a 

168 


CUBA AND PORTO RICO 169 

papal bull authorized the order of Preaching Friars to 
found a university in Havana, with power to confer 
academic degrees, but the courses of study were designed 
for the benefit of young Spaniards preparing for business 
or professions, but more particularly for the priesthood of 
the Roman Church. In 1890 this institution reported an 
enrollment of 1,046. There was also a Collegiate Institute 
for each of the six provinces, with a total attendance of 
2,909. In the same year the number of children reported 
in the common schools was 38,106, or about one to forty- 
five of the entire population. The estimate for educational 
purposes for 1893 was $137,760, but not a dollar was 
allowed for common schools. In 1880 a law making at¬ 
tendance upon school compulsory was promulgated, but 
was from the first a dead letter, as neither schoolhouses nor 
teachers were provided. 


Morals 

The moral standards of the people, if they had any, were 
very low. What else could there be where poverty and 
ignorance were so universal? Several potent causes con¬ 
tributed to this end. The marriage relation was widely 
disregarded. By reason of excessive fees demanded by the 
priests legal marriages were comparatively very few. Con¬ 
cubinage existed on a wide scale and seemed to meet with 
but slight disfavor. An elderly Cuban on board our ship 
boasted that he was the father of fifty-two children and 
that eighteen of his sons were in the Cuban army. He had 
one legal wife and four concubines. The priests were 
regarded by the people as generally unchaste. A wealthy 
Cuban gentleman said he would not send his daughters to 
a school under the control of priests for fear their virtue 
would be tarnished. The moral condition of Cuba at the 


170 


THE STONE OF HELP 


time of the American intervention was the joint product of 
Spanish misrule in government and of the Roman Catholic 
hierarchy in religion. The people as a whole were victims 
of conditions for which they were not responsible. 

An Open Door 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, had commenced 
work at Havana and Matanzas, on the north coast, and at 
Santiago, on the south coast, near the eastern end of the 
island. A clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
was conducting an English service in Havana, but was 
making no effort to establish work among the native 
Cubans. 

In view of the fact that the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, was already on the ground, our General Committee 
at its ensuing session declined to authorize and provide 
for the founding of a mission in Cuba. 

Porto Rico 

From Cuba we proceeded to Porto Rico, an island located 
fifteen hundred miles southeasterly from New York city, 
containing an area ot about thirty-six hundred square miles; 
in topography mountainous, with heights ranging from 
twenty-five hundred to thirty-seven hundred feet; charm¬ 
ingly picturesque, with valleys rich in agricultural resources. 
The climate is almost ideal. During the coolest months of 
the winter season the average is seventy-three degrees, 
and during the warmest month of summer, it is seventy-nine 
degrees. Fruits native to the soil and climate were plentiful 
and luscious—bananas, oranges, grapefruit, cocoanut, etc.— 
in all stages of development, from the opening blossoms to 
the ripened fruit. In every month of the year these fruits 
bloom and reach maturity. On mountainsides the royal 


CUBA AND PORTO RICO 


171 

palm waves its splendid fronds, but, like royalty every¬ 
where, is more ornamental than useful. 

The population was estimated at the time of our visit at 
nine hundred and fifty-three thousand two hundred and 
forty-three, and might be very properly described as mixed, 
as it was made up of all colors from ebony to light brown. 
There was absolutely no color line, and all shades mingled 
socially without prejudice or embarrassment. But there 
was a racial line definitely drawn and strictly observed. 
The pure Castilian, born in Spain, held himself above the 
equally pure Castilian born in Porto Rico. We found 
urgent and convincing reasons why the Methodist Episcopal 
Church should enter the island without delay, as follows: 

1. Destitution . It was a physical, intellectual, and spirit¬ 
ual waste. Archbishop Chappell, who had but recently 
visited San Juan, said to a high United States official, with 
whom we conversed, that the moral condition of the people 
was deplorable and expressed a willingness that the Meth¬ 
odists should come and wake them up. 

2. Hopefulness. The young people were anxious to 
acquire the English language. A company of children were 
asked what they would like most for a Christmas gift and 
the prompt answer was “English teachers.’ , Large numbers 
of the common people were ready to receive religious in¬ 
struction from Protestants, notwithstanding the opposition 
of the priests. 

j. Favorable Conditions. The rule of Spain was wiped 
out and the most kindly feeling toward the United States 
prevailed universally. We entered San Juan on Washing¬ 
ton’s Birthday and found the people bubbling over with 
new-born patriotic fervor. The stars and stripes were 
everywhere displayed, processions thronged the streets, and 
a great mass meeting was held in a theater, where eulogies 


172 


THE STONE OF HELP 


were pronounced upon George Washington and William 
McKinley. 

4. A Part of the United States . Religious liberty was 
assured—a thing unknown before. 

5. The Way Clear. No other Methodist body contem¬ 
plated entering the island and no question of Methodist 
comity was likely to arise. It was suggested that a thor¬ 
oughly competent missionary, a master of the Spanish 
language, from one of our Spanish missions be commis¬ 
sioned without delay to go to Porto Rico, take charge of 
the founding of the work, and report to the board the points 
that should be occupied, the kind of work that should be 
inaugurated, and the number of missionaries needed. Ac¬ 
cordingly, the Rev. C. W. Drees, D.D., was transferred 
from South America to Porto Rico, who successfully 
founded our work and for some time led in its development. 

A Second Visit 

Fifteen years later (February, 1914) it was my privilege 
to visit Porto Rico a second time and note the changes 
that had transpired. The population had increased from 
953,243 to 1,118,012. The population of San Juan, the 
capital, had grown from 32,048, to 48,716, and Ponce, on 
the south side of the island, from 27,952 to 35,027. Several 
other cities and towns had increased correspondingly. The 
agricultural products had largely increased, particularly 
sugar cane, coffee, and tropical fruits. A public school 
system had been well organized and developed. Crossing 
the island fifteen years previously, no schoolhouses were 
seen, but now they are in evidence along the great highways 
and in secluded country places, well equipped with modern 
school furniture and always floating, during school hours, 
the star-spangled banner. The Conference had just been 


CUBA AND PORTO RICO 


173 


held and the superintendent, the Rev. Manuel Andujar, 
reported 125 preaching places, over 7,000 members, includ- 
ing probationers and candidates, and 600 baptisms during 
the past year. The gain in membership during the year 
was 600. Since 1907, when the Missionary Society was 
abolished and a Board of Foreign Missions and a Board 
of Home Missions and Church Extension were organized, 
the work in Porto Rico has been under the successful man¬ 
agement of the latter organization. 

The Woman's Home Missionary Society 

This society is rendering excellent service. Its most im¬ 
portant institution is the George O. Robinson Orphanage 
for girls at San Turce, a suburb of San Juan. It is finely 
located on a four-acre lot, fronting toward the ocean, whose 
surf beats unceasingly upon the beach, two squares away. 
The edifice is built of concrete blocks and is well equipped 
with dormitories, school, and industrial facilities. A small 
frame cottage has been erected just west of the main build¬ 
ing, the first floor being occupied for school purposes. The 
institution now accommodates fifty-two girls ranging from 
six to sixteen years of age. 

An additional building will be erected and will bear the 
name of Gertrude Orbis, who provides for its construction. 
The new cottage will accommodate thirty, making the 
capacity of the institution eighty-two. The new cottage 
will provide a large assembly room where religious services, 
concerts, entertainments, etc., may be held, which will add 
greatly to the convenience and usefulness of the institution. 
Judge George O. Robinson, of Detroit, Michigan, and Miss 
Orbis have linked their names with an institution that will 
perpetuate their memory through the oncoming years. This 
institution has only started on its career and will continue 


174 


THE STONE OF HELP 


to grow as time moves on. There is ample room on the 
site for additional buildings, and doubtless there are those 
who will perpetuate their own names or the names of loved 
ones by providing the funds for their erection. The orphans 
are now supported by scholarships at an expense of $45 
a year, provided by individuals and auxiliaries in the States. 
This orphanage ought to have a capacity for five hundred 
girls, and should have an endowment of not less than $500,- 
000. The orphans are waiting. Who will erect the needed 
buildings and provide the endowment? 

The Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Tames C. Murray have charge 
of this institution and are doing a great work. They are 
father and mother to fifty-two girls, many of whom were 
born out of wedlock and who do not know their natural 
parents. Dr. Murray is a member of the North Indiana 
Conference, and was for many years a professor in Gam¬ 
mon Theological Seminary at Atlanta, Georgia. 

Beside the orphanage, the Woman’s Home Missionary 
Society has a McKinley Day School and kindergarten in 
San Juan, a kindergarten at Puerta de Tierra, a suburb of 
San Juan, a day school and kindergarten at Arecibo, fifty 
miles west of San Juan, and the Fisk Day School and 
kindergarten at Ponce, on the south coast of the island. Ad¬ 
mission to these day schools and kindergartens is free, the 
one condition being that the children attend regularly one 
of our Sunday schools. 


CHAPTER XXIV 


MEXICO AND ITS PEOPLE—1904 

Having been authorized by the Board of Managers of 
the Missionary Society to visit and inspect our work in 
Mexico, I left New York, December 29, 1903, and going 
by way of Cincinnati and Saint Louis, entered the republic 
of Mexico at 5 p. m., January 4, 1904, and arrived in 
Mexico City January 6, at 11130 a. m. Although Mexico 
is our next-door neighbor, on the southwest, Americans are 
less familiar with its geography, topography, products, and 
history than with some other countries much farther away. 

Climate 

The natives divide the country climatically into three 
zones—hot, temperate, and cold. At the sea level is the hot, 
and at an elevation of three thousand to four thousand feet 
the temperate, and seven thousand feet and above is the cold. 
Between Mexico City and Vera Cruz, a distance of less than 
three hundred miles, all these climates, and each in varying 
degrees, may be found during the months of December, 
January, February, and March. At Mexico City the eleva¬ 
tion is something more than eight thousand feet. Here 
frost is often seen, and sometimes ice. In the hot and tem¬ 
perate zones all kinds of tropical plants and a variety of 
tropical fruits and vegetables, including coffee, grow in great 
luxuriance. Here it may be said that if mother earth is but 
“tickled with a hoe, she laughs a harvest.” One has but to 

i75 


176 


THE STONE OF HELP 


pass through the markets of one of the principal cities or 
larger towns to be impressed with the almost endless 
variety of the products—Indian corn, wheat, maize, barley, 
beans of all colors, nuts in great variety, dyes, gums, waxes, 
salts, pineapples, lemons, limes, oranges, custard apples, 
sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco, pulque, and wares of every kind. 
But while parts of the country are very fertile, there are 
vast stretches that are and always will be worthless for 
agricultural purposes. Vast areas are made up of moun¬ 
tains of volcanic origin, some of which rise to great heights. 
Popocatepetl (“Smoking Mountain”) and Iztaccihuatl 
(“The White Lady”) are eighteen thousand feet above the 
sea level and are always crowned with snow, and may 
always be seen when the sky is clear standing like great 
sentinels to the southeast of Mexico City. Mount Orizaba, 
to the northeast of the city, of about equal altitude, is a 
great landmark as one travels eastward through a wild 
canon traversed by the railroad running from Mexico City 
to Vera Cruz. The railroad running southeast from Mexico 
City by way of Puebla to Oaxaca traverses another moun¬ 
tain region, which for majestic, weird scenery can hardly 
be excelled in North America. Indeed, in traveling about 
four thousand miles within the bounds of the republic there 
was not a moment when mountain ranges were not in view. 
On the great plateaus among the mountains there are vast 
regions that are arid and in the absence of irrigation must 
forever remain so, but its mountains and valleys are de¬ 
positories of vast mines of wealth. Perhaps no other coun¬ 
try in the world possesses such rich mines of silver, some 
of which have been worked more than three hundred years 
and seem to be inexhaustible. Probably there is silver 
enough in the mountains of Mexico to make every one of 
its sixteen millions of people a millionaire. In more recent 


MEXICO AND ITS PEOPLE 


177 


years gold has been found in different parts of the country. 
Indeed, there was a gold craze widespread and some rich 
mines had been opened, while prospecting by natives and 
foreigners was on a wide scale. At El Oro, one hundred 
and ten miles west of Mexico City, rich gold-bearing rock 
had been found, and three great companies were taking out 
millions annually. Notwithstanding this vast wealth of 
silver and gold, the masses were and still are wretchedly 
poor. Of course there are people who are very rich, but 
their number is comparatively small. Nor does there seem 
to be a large middle class. The rank and file—peons they 
are called—are in the depths of poverty. They live in 
miserable shacks, often alive with vermin and reeking with 
filth. The mildness of the climate makes existence on a 
very low level possible. Their clothes are, as a rule, scant 
and often ragged and dirty. The peon who has a shirt 
and trousers of cotton cloth, no matter how ragged and 
filthy, and in the higher altitudes a zarapa (blanket) which 
he throws about his shoulders and draws across his breast, 
often in tatters, and a woman with a skirt and chemise of 
the same material, and a rebozo (scarf) with which she 
covers her head and wraps her body, have each a somewhat 
elaborate wardrobe. As to children, they are frequently 
clothed with suits of dark brown that are seldom washed 
and never changed. The present Mexican race is largely 
a mixture of the native Aztec and Spanish blood, and, as a 
rule, the people speak the Spanish language. 

But there are still in numerous remote places pure Indians 
who do not speak the Spanish language. I made a detour 
from Orizaba of several miles on a Mexican pony to see a 
native Aztec village where we have a small church, upon the 
corner stone of which is inscribed “Parkhurst Memorial 
Chapel,” Dr. Parkhurst, the editor of Zion’s Herald, having 


THE STONE OF HELP 


178 

provided for its erection. The people in that Aztec village 
were rugged, well-proportioned, agile, and strong—repre¬ 
sentatives of the race that occupied the whole country 
previous to the Spanish conquest. 

The Government 

The government was republican in name, while in fact it 
was a monarchy. President Diaz was as much a monarch 
as is the Czar of Russia. He had been constantly in the 
presidency since 1884. He rigidly maintained the form of 
a republic, but by autocratic methods. No man could be 
chosen governor of a state in the republic without his ap¬ 
proval, and all other officers of importance were appointed, 
if not by his dictation, at least by his consent. That he 
was devoted to republican principles there could be no rea¬ 
sonable doubt; that he enforced those principles by dicta¬ 
torial methods is equally certain. In view of the then exist¬ 
ing state of civilization in Mexico, and of the arrogancy 
of the Roman priesthood, the course pursued by Diaz was 
the only one that could succeed. He was a believer in reli¬ 
gious liberty, and for that reason he was hated by the 
Roman hierarchy. But for this devotion to religious 
liberty Protestantism could not have existed in Mexico. 

Romanism in Mexico 

As far back as 1494 Pope Alexander VI, assuming uni¬ 
versal proprietorship, divided the undiscovered world be¬ 
tween the kings of Spain and Portugal by an imaginary 
line of longitude running through the Atlantic Ocean from 
pole to pole, three hundred and seventy miles west of the 
Azores, giving the Portuguese all lands they might discover 
to the east of that line and to the Spanish “every isle, conti¬ 
nent, and sea” on the western hemisphere. The conquest 


MEXICO AND ITS PEOPLE 


179 


of Mexico by Cortes was completed in 1521, and by a 
decree of Pope Alexander the country passed under the 
control of Spain. The entrance of Romanism was simul¬ 
taneous with that of the Spanish conquest, and it continued 
without interruption for more than three hundred years. 

Previous to the conquest of Mexico, for an unknown 
period, a vast system of pagan idolatry had existed, which 
Romanism by the most violent methods sought to destroy. 
Pictures, rolls, signs, and idols were obliterated, which would 
now be of immense value to the historian. Instead, how¬ 
ever, of wiping out idolatry, these zealous priests only 
substituted new forms of idolatry for the old. The Indian 
simply gave up his old idols and accepted new ones. In¬ 
stead of bowing before the images that had been broken 
to pieces before his eyes, he bowed before the images of 
Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the saints. He still had 
penance, confession, feasts, fasts, and religious holidays, 
and all these things remain until the present time. A vast 
number—more than three millions—of unmixed Indians, 
to say nothing of the mixed races, are still idolaters, with 
only a thin veneering of Romanism. The Hon. Matias 
Romero, long minister to the United States, says, “It is 
true that a great many Mexicans, namely, the Indians, do 
not know much about religion, and keep to their old idolatry, 
having only changed their idols, that is, replacing old deities 
with the images of the saints of the Catholic Church.” 
Indeed, in view of the methods employed, no other results 
could have been expected. The people were conquered with 
weapons of carnal warfare and accepted the religion of their 
conquerors as a sign of submission to the Spanish mon¬ 
arch. 

There were doubtless gross superstitions connected with 
the old idolatries, but they could hardly have been worse 


i8o 


THE STONE OF HELP 


than those sanctioned and practiced by the Romanists. Take 
the practice of mariolatry, which probably has no parallel 
in any other country. Mexico has two virgin mothers— 
the Virgin Remedios and Our Lady of Guadalupe. The 
former has been for more than three hundred years the 
idol of the Spanish aristocracy in Mexico. The Empress 
Carlota, the wife of the ill-fated Emperor Maximilian, upon 
her arrival in Mexico, 1864, hoping to gain popularity, 
accepted this virgin as her protectress and headed a pro¬ 
cession of ladies walking in the dusty streets of Mexico 
City, carrying in her hand an immense burning wax taper. 
As a protectress, however, the virgin was a failure, for 
Carlota was compelled to flee from the country and seek 
safety across the ocean, while her husband followed her 
soon after in a coffin. 

The legend of the Lady of Guadalupe is that an Indian 
saw three successive apparitions of this virgin and that her 
image was miraculously imprinted on his blanket. At her 
request, three times repeated, the Bishop of Mexico, erected 
a church on the site of the virgin’s appearance, in which 
the original blanket is kept framed in solid gold. December 
12, the anniversary of her appearance, was still celebrated 
with great pomp throughout the country. I visited this 
church, but was not privileged to see the original blanket 
and painting, which is kept in a vault to which only favored 
ones are admitted. I was informed that this painting had 
been frequently renewed and touched up as the years had 
gone by. It seems strange that a picture miraculously pro¬ 
duced should not be miraculously preserved from fading. 

The Spanish Yoke 

In the struggle to break the Spanish yoke in 1810 the 
patriot priest Hidalgo, in order to rally the people to his 


MEXICO AND ITS PEOPLE 181 

standard, put the image of the Lady of Guadalupe on his 
flag, which the Spaniards met by placing on their flag the 
picture of the Virgin Remedios. Thus the two virgins were 
brought into conflict, which was continued until the over¬ 
throw of Maximilian, when the last political hope of the 
worshipers of the Virgin Remedios died out. The pictures 
and images of these virgins are seen in many of the 
churches, but those of the Lady Guadalupe far outnumber 
those of the Virgin Remedios. In the many churches visited 
by the writer the former was seen far more frequently than 
the image of Christ. In fact, the Virgin of Guadalupe as 
an object of worship by far surpasses the Christ. 

Indulgences 

Indulgences which so fired the zeal of Martin Luther 
against the Roman Church in the sixteenth century are 
bartered on a wide scale in Mexico. In front of the Church 
of Santo Domingo, in the city of Puebla, there is a cross 
mounted upon a stone pedestal, upon which is inscribed in 
Spanish: “Ten thousand years of indulgences for each one 
who is in a state of grace and before this cross shall 
repeat five times the words of the Lord’s Prayer and hail 
Mary with glory in memory of the ascension of Jesus 
Christ.” The above translation was made on the spot by 
Dr. Borton, who knows Spanish perfectly. It is estimated 
that the form required can be repeated four times an hour, 
so that one hour’s service before this cross would purchase 
indulgences for forty thousand years, and twenty-four 
hours would secure nine hundred and sixty thousand years. 
This certainly offers an opportunity for dealing in futures 
that would delight the soul of a Wall Street broker. 

In company with Dr. John W. Butler I visited the parish 


THE STONE OF HELP 


182 

church at El Oro, on the walls of which, in a conspicuous 
place, was posted a written document, of which the follow¬ 
ing is a translation, made by Dr. Butler, whose knowledge 
of Spanish is well known: “List of the dead who drew 
prizes in the mass which was said in the raffle for souls 
which took place October 31, 1903, in the parish church 
of El Oro.” Then follows a list of twenty-three names of 
deceased persons who drew prizes, to which the signature 
of the parish priest, the Rev. Amilio Penpobre, is affixed. 


Three Great Men 

Three men corresponding to our Washington, Lincoln, 
and Grant are on the roll of honor in Mexico—Hidalgo, 
Juarez, and Diaz. Hidalgo broke the political power of 
Spain and is regarded as the liberator of Mexico. Septem¬ 
ber 16, 1810, he sent forth his proclamation of independence 
and unfurled his flag of freedom. Having been betrayed 
by a former friend, he was stripped of his ecclesiastical 
robes and turned over to the Spanish military authorities 
and was shot July 30, 1811. His military career was short, 
but he struck a blow against the political power of Spain 
from which she never recovered. Juarez was an Indian of 
pure blood, born in a small Indian village near Oaxaca in 
1806. In his boyhood a shepherd, then a student, then 
successively a lawyer, chief justice, governor, and finally 
president, to which office he was chosen in 1858. His 
great struggle was with the papacy as represented by Louis 
Napoleon and Maximilian. The part played by Mr. Seward 
in demanding the withdrawal of the French troops from 
Mexico is well known. The French army withdrawn from 
the country, Maximilian was soon captured, and after a 
trial by court-martial, was shot just outside the city of 


MEXICO AND ITS PEOPLE 183 

Queretaro, June 19, 1867, as were also his two generals, 
Miramon and Mejia. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church in Mexico 

February 3, 1857, a liberal constitution was adopted and 
proclaimed “in the name of God and by the authority of 
the Mexican people,” containing among others the following 
great principles: 1. The establishment of a constitutional 
federal government in place of a military dictatorship. 
2. Freedom and protection of slaves within the national 
territory. 3. Freedom of religion. 4. Freedom of the 
press. The adoption of the constitution by the Liberals 
prepared the way for a more formal and open propa- 
gandism as soon as these provisions could be made effective. 

At first what was known as the Foreign Christian Union 
was projected, but was soon found to be unsatisfactory, for 
the reason that it was used to further the interests of one 
particular denomination, which was quite exclusive in its 
doctrines and methods. It was, therefore, decided to dis¬ 
continue the Union and plan to allow each Protestant church 
to enter the country and carry on its work in its own way. 
Accordingly, Dr. William Butler, who had returned from 
India, was appointed by Bishop Simpson to Mexico, with 
instructions to found a mission in that country. On Febru¬ 
ary 23, 1873, Dr. Butler and Bishop Gilbert Haven arrived 
in Mexico City and within three weeks valuable property 
was secured in the capital and at Puebla. Dr. Butler in his 
work entitled Mexico in Transition has narrated the diffi¬ 
culties that obstructed his way in procuring property, and 
the awful horrors revealed by the opening of cells in the 
walls of the inquisition building in Puebla, from which 
skeletons were removed, the victims having been walled in 
alive. Twelve such cells were opened, each containing a 


184 


THE STONE OF HELP 


skeleton, several of which although partly decayed, were 
sufficiently preserved to be propped up and photographed. 
After the building came into our possession one more cell 
was found, making thirteen in all. No doubt the cruel 
Dominican monks who constituted the inquisitorial order 
supposed that their crimes were sealed up never to be 
brought to light. But the liberal government secularized 
(or humanized rather) the buildings, and the pick, crowbar, 
and the photographer did the rest. Not until the Day of 
Judgment will all the horrors that have been perpetrated 
by the Inquisition in Mexico be fully made known. But a 
new era had dawned upon this unfortunate land, so long 
crushed beneath a political despotism and tortured by a 
heartless hierarchy, and religious freedom had become a 
fact. Church and state were absolutely separate, and 
although Romanism was the dominant religion, the right 
to worship God under one’s own vine and fig tree and with 
no one (legally) to molest or make afraid was guaranteed. 

Mexico City 

Mexico City, with its population of five hundred thousand, 
is situated on a vast plateau, more than eight thousand feet 
above sea level, and is surrounded with mountains, some of 
whose snow-clad peaks rise to a height of more than seven¬ 
teen thousand feet. The vast lake to the eastward, with 
its marshy and malaria-breeding borders, has been partly 
drained by a great canal cut through the mountain rim, 
and now it is not half its former size, greatly contributing 
to the healthfulness of the city and surrounding country. 
This city is rapidly becoming one of the important capitals 
of the western hemisphere and now has nearly twice the 
population of Washington, our own capital city. Its cobble¬ 
stone pavements are giving place to asphaltum, and electric 


MEXICO AND ITS PEOPLE 


185 


cars run through the principal streets and to the surrounding 
suburbs. Electric lights banish darkness and the fine tele¬ 
phone system converts the dwelling houses and business 
places into whisper galleries. 

Our property, once a part of a Roman Catholic convent, 
but at the time we purchased it known as Charini Circus, 
is centrally located and up to the present time has splendidly 
served the purpose to which it is devoted. On the first floor 
are an auditorium with skylight, which will accommodate 
about four hundred people, and two chapels with seating 
capacity of one hundred and fifty respectively. On this 
floor there are accommodations for our bookstore, printing 
press, and business office. The second and third floors 
furnish comfortable residences for two missionary families 
and our native pastor. Here we have a Spanish church 
with a membership of about five hundred, and an English- 
speaking church of about fifty members. A site for a new 
English church had been secured in the western part of the 
city, in the midst of a growing English population, and 
within less than half a block from the great thoroughfare 
that runs from the central part of the city to Chapultepec, 
a great fortress just beyond the western boundary. The 
Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society had sold its property 
in the central part of the city and had erected an elegant 
edifice, splendidly situated in the northwestern part of the 
city, known as the Sarah L. Keen College. 

Puebla 

Puebla, located about one hundred miles southeasterly of 
Mexico City, is often spoken of as the religious capital of 
Mexico. It has a population of one hundred thousand, and 
has the reputation of being the most fanatical of all the cities 
of the republic. In the central part of the city we own, to- 


186 


THE STONE OF HELP 


gether with the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, about 
three fourths of an entire block, the remaining one fourth 
being the site of a large Roman Catholic church. In this 
instance we are certainly up against Rome. Here we have 
an excellent church of modern architecture, with spacious 
auditorium, lecture room and classrooms, with boys’ college 
and theological school adjoining, for which we need en¬ 
larged accommodations. 


Oaxaca 

Oaxaca, two hundred miles to the southeast of Puebla, 
with a population of thirty thousand, is our most southern 
center, but where as yet we have made only a feeble begin¬ 
ning. The state of Oaxaca is one of the most important in 
the republic, and has produced two of its greatest warriors 
and statesmen—Juarez and Diaz. Here our property is 
finely located and ample, so far as space is concerned, but 
a new church and two boarding schools, one for the Board 
of Foreign Missions and one for the Woman’s Foreign 
Missionary Society, are greatly needed. 

Pachuca 

Pachuca, sixty miles northeast of the capital, has a popu¬ 
lation of fifty thousand and is one of the important silver¬ 
mining towns of the republic. It had an English-speaking 
population of probably four hundred, most of whom were 
Cornishmen, connected with mining interests. A commodi¬ 
ous brick church, with stone trimmings, had been erected 
mainly by the liberality of these English people. There 
were two auditoriums, one for English services and the 
other for Spanish. On the same block upon which the 
church stands and immediately adjoining it was an excellent 
girls’ school of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, 


MEXICO AND ITS PEOPLE 


187 

with an attendance of about three hundred. We had also a 
boys’ English school which was self-supporting. 

Orizaba 

Orizaba is on the railroad leading from Vera Cruz to 
Mexico City, at an elevation of about four thousand feet, 
and has a population of twenty thousand. We had recently 
purchased in that city a property from the Methodist Epis¬ 
copal Church, South, consisting of a commodious church 
and parsonage, well located, which when repaired would 
give us a commanding position. Our school property is 
only a short distance from the church and is also well 
located. In Orizaba our work was wholly Spanish, except 
a school for boys and girls, in which English was taught 
and which paid the salary of the English teacher. 

Guanajuato 

Guanajuato, with a population of seventy-five thousand, 
is located in a narrow, winding gorge, walled with mountains 
of solid rock, craggy and precipitous. The houses line the 
street and perch on terraces and niches on and in the sides 
of the mountains. Our property, except the church edifice, 
consists of a hospital and two schools for boys and girls. 
The hospital, under the direction of Dr. Salmans, was doing 
a good work not only by relieving suffering, but also by 
opening the way for giving the gospel of Christ to a fanati¬ 
cal, ignorant people. Our house of worship is about half¬ 
way between the extremes of the city and is between two 
immense Roman Catholic churches, the clanging of the 
bells of which not infrequently drowns the voice of the 
preacher in the midst of his sermon. The rear of the build¬ 
ing abuts the mountain, rendering it damp particularly in 
the rainy season. It would be wise, if practicable, to sell 


188 


THE STONE OF HELP 


our present property and erect two churches in the town, 
separated by a reasonable distance. 

Queretaro 

Queretaro, a city of approximately forty-five thousand, 
where the would-be-emperor of Mexico, Maximilian, was 
tried by court-martial and shot to death, is noted for its 
large number of Roman Catholic churches and priests. Dr. 
J. W. Butler says, “There are more Roman Catholic 
churches here than schools and more priests than there are 
pupils in the public schools.” The railroad ticket agent re¬ 
ported that in a single year seventy-two priests applied for 
clerical permits. Here we have a prosperous boys’ school, a 
successful evangelistic work, and are recognized as a power 
for good. 

Leon 

Leon, with a population of over one hundred thousand, 
is situated about two hundred miles northwest of Mexico 
City. Here a small native church had been organized by 
the Rev. Ira Cartwright (since deceased), and a medical 
dispensary had been established by Mrs. Dr. Cartwright, 
wife of the missionary in charge. There was also a school 
for boys and girls. We owned no property and the prospect 
was not encouraging. What was needed, but was not 
obtainable for lack of money, was a house of worship and 
a school building. 

El Oro 

El Oro is a gold-mining camp one hundred and ten miles 
west of Mexico City and is at an elevation of ten thousand 
feet. In the neighborhood there were three, great gold mines 
in operation from which millions of dollars were taken 
annually. The capital invested was foreign and the man- 


MEXICO AND ITS PEOPLE 


189 


agement was by foreigners. One year previous to my visit 
two missionaries (husband and wife) had been sent to 
El Oro, and in the brief time that had elapsed a com¬ 
modious church edifice and parsonage had been completed 
and paid for, all the money except $500 having been raised 
on the ground. A native town was near by in which it was 
proposed to establish work at an early day. In many other 
cities, towns, and villages work had been established and 
successfully carried on by missionaries and native pastors 
and teachers, notwithstanding opposition of the priests of 
the Roman Catholic Church was everywhere intense and 
persecutions frequently severe. 

The Future? 

Since the above was written the situation in Mexico has 
become far more acute by reason of the capture of Vera 
Cruz by our navy, and its occupation by our soldiers, and 
the successive important victories of the Constitutionalists 
over the Federalists. All our missionaries have fled from 
Mexico and are at this writing in the United States, except 
one, and she has entered the service of the Red Cross as a 
nurse. How long it will be before they can return will be 
determined by the outcome of the bloody struggle going on 
between the contending armies. The A. B. C. Peace Com¬ 
mission, for several weeks in session at Niagara Falls, ad¬ 
journed without having reached satisfactory results (July 
1, 1914). Whether they will convene again is uncertain, 
and what the final outcome of the bloody struggle will be, 
God only knows. 

South America 

South America is the only continent of the globe I have 
not visited, at least in part, during the twenty-four years 


THE STONE OF HELP 


190 

of my official relation with our foreign missionary work. 
For a considerable part of those years I conducted the 
correspondence with that great field, and have always been 
in deepest sympathy with the work and the workers. For 
a graphic survey of the South American field the reader 
is referred to the report of Bishop Stuntz, found in the 
Annual Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church for 1913. 


CHAPTER XXV 


ALASKA—1905 

To most people the word “Alaska” is only a name con¬ 
veying no more than the idea of a country of indefinite area 
in the far Northwest, inhabited by a few Eskimo, Indians, 
and polar bears, frozen tight the year round and containing 
little else than frozen rivers, glaciers, and extinct volcanoes; 
whereas its area is five hundred and ninety thousand eight 
hundred and four square miles, out of which could be made 
fourteen States as large as Ohio and two as large as New 
Jersey, with three hundred and thirty-four square miles to 
spare. In the south and southeast, where the climate is modi¬ 
fied by the Japan current which flows across the Pacific and 
washes almost its entire coast, agriculture is practicable, and 
a considerable variety of vegetables and cereals can be pro¬ 
duced, which is also true of the great valley of the Yukon. 

Seattle to Nome 

The distance from Seattle to Nome by way of Skag- 
way, White Pass, the Yukon River, Norton Sound, and 
Bering Sea, is thirty-two hundred miles. From Seattle to 
Skagway, at the head of the Lynn Canal, is one thousand 
miles, and requires ninety-six hours by steamship. The 
steamers follow what is known as the inside route; that is, 
the route lies among the numerous islands that consti¬ 
tute the fringe or the raveling of the west coast. These 
islands range in size from small rocky patches that are 
barely above the water at high tide, to great areas more 


192 


THE STONE OF HELP 


than one hundred miles long, some of them sixty miles 
wide, and upon many of them are vast forests, rich mines, 
and snow-capped mountains. The steamers on their way 
seem to be sailing along valleys flooded by the inflowing 
of the Pacific Ocean. It has been my privilege to sail the 
waters of the West Indies, Northern Europe, along the 
coasts of Eastern Asia and Southern Asia, and through the 
Inland Sea of Japan, but nowhere have I looked upon 
natural scenery more varied, picturesque, and majestic than 
a voyage along the west coast of North America presents, 
in panoramic splendor, to the vision of the traveler. 

Glaciers 

In many valleys there are vast ice rivers, called glaciers, 
that slowly move down to the sea. Let us turn aside and 
look upon one of these wonderful formations known as 
Taku Glacier, lying in a mountain gorge twenty-five miles 
from Juneau. As we approach it, although we are ten miles 
or more distant, we begin to notice that ice is floating upon 
the water, and as we draw nearer icebergs come into view. 
Only one eighth of an iceberg appears above water. We 
pass near one that is thirty feet above the surface, making 
its entire height, if it stood upon the land, two hundred and 
forty feet. At length the floating ice and icebergs block 
the way and our steam launch can go no further. We are 
still more than two miles from the front wall of Old Taku, 
but he does not seem to be more than a rifle shot distant, and 
when seen through a field glass, it appears to be but a stone’s 
cast to his base. This glacier presents a front wall of solid 
ice two and one half miles long and about one thousand feet 
high. Its great surface is corrugated by the action of the 
sun’s rays, giving it the appearance of a vast cathedral 
adorned with thousands of pinnacles. 


ALASKA 


193 


White Pass 

A narrow gauge railroad has been built from Skagway 
at the head of Lynn Canal, by way of White Pass, to White 
Horse, a distance of one hundred and ten miles. In sur¬ 
veying and constructing the line the highest skill of the 
civil engineer has been brought into requisition. If ever 
nature entered a protest anywhere against the construction 
of a thoroughfare for travel and commerce, it is here in 
these mountain fastnesses; but nature’s protest was ignored, 
for the Klondike with its treasures of gold was beyond. 
Much of the way the old trail, upon which many a weary 
gold-seeker tramped with aching back and weary feet, and 
along which many laid down their packs to take them up no 
more, is in view from the car window. White Pass, the 
highest point on the road, is three thousand feet above sea 
level. Here the boundary line between Alaska and British 
Columbia is reached, and we pass from the protecting folds 
of the stars and stripes to the equally protecting folds of 
the union jack. Very appropriately here the national 
emblems of the United States and Great Britain float from 
the same flagstaff. At White Pass station we are above 
the snow line, and although it is the 5th of July it is so 
cold that heavy overcoats are in demand. The railroad lies 
through a notch in the mountain range, above which on 
either side peaks rise to the height of several thousand feet. 

White Horse River 

This river is a tributary to the Yukon River and at the 
highest point of steam navigation. The town—White 
Horse—has a population of about five hundred people, liv¬ 
ing in log cabins, shanties, and canvas tents. Here we took 
passage on the steamer White Horse and passed along Fifty 


194 THE STONE OF HELP 

Mile River into Lewes River at the mouth of the Hootalin- 
qua, and on to Fort Selkirk, where it joins the Pelly, the 
two constituting the great Yukon River, which flows along 
a valley of varying width walled by low mountain ranges on 
either side, covered with a dense growth of fir and birch. 
There are many places where the valley broadens with soil 
rich enough to produce bountifully were it brought under 
cultivation. Through the valleys of the Yukon and its 
tributaries flows one of the vast river systems of the world. 
From White Horse to Saint Michael is about twenty-one 
hundred miles, one of the greatest continuous lengths of 
river navigation in the world. The Yukon is the Amazon 
of North America, carrying a third greater volume of water 
to the Bering Sea than does the Mississippi to the Gulf of 
Mexico. The season for navigation lasts only about four 
months, beginning the first of June and closing early in 
October. The ice forms first at the bottom of the river and 
is called “anchor ice,” and later on the surface. The flow of 
the river during the winter is mainly between the lower and 
the upper ice. Very often the water breaks through the 
upper ice, when it quickly freezes, making the surface ex¬ 
ceedingly rough and difficult for sled travel. 

Dawson 

The first place of importance after leaving White Horse 
is Dawson, four hundred and fifty miles distant, the capital 
of Yukon Territory, Dominion of Canada, and the center 
of the Klondike gold-mining region. Gold was discovered 
here in 1896, and the great rush of gold-seekers commenced 
in the year following. A year later Dawson had a popula¬ 
tion of ten thousand and the entire Klondike country of 
thirty thousand. In 1905 the whole population probably 


ALASKA 


195 


did not exceed twelve thousand, of whom Dawson had five 
thousand. Two things had caused this decrease of popula¬ 
tion : first, the discovery of rich gold deposits at Fairbanks, 
Alaska; and, second, the royalty levied by the Canadian 
government upon all gold taken from the mines. At first 
the royalty was ten per cent, but it had been reduced on 
account no doubt, in large part, of the exodus to Fairbanks, 
to two and one half per cent. The dwelling and business 
houses were without exception built of wood and were of 
the cheapest quality. Many dwellings were only very small 
cabins and shanties, and the wonder was that the occupants 
could be in any sense comforable during the long winters, 
when not infrequently the mercury drops to sixty below 
zero. 

A drive of thirteen miles up the Klondike and Bonanza 
Creeks revealed in part the extent to which placer mining 
was once carried on, and its limitations. While a very 
considerable amount of mining was still in progress, far 
the larger number of mines were either unworked or 
abandoned. Many believed that the lowest point of busi¬ 
ness depression had been reached and it was claimed that 
already there was the beginning of an upward tendency. 
In 1904 the amount of gold taken out was $10,000,000, 
the lowest point reached since 1898, while the total amount 
upon which royalty had been paid since 1897 was $120,000,- 
000. Placer mining is no easy task in the Klondike, as the 
gravel in which the gold is found is frozen solid. Anywhere 
in the Yukon country ice is reached in summer at a depth 
of from two to four feet. In a street in Dawson I saw a 
ditch out of which solid blocks of ice were taken at a depth 
of less than three feet. The houses stand on ice founda¬ 
tions. The pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Dawson 
stated to the writer that the Presbyterian Hospital, two 


196 


THE STONE OF HELP 


stories high, built of logs, stands upon ice. The unfrozen 
surface was shoveled away and the first logs were laid upon 
the frozen earth and covered with sawdust to the depth of 
about two feet, and although the edifice had been erected 
several years, there was no indication that the foundation 
was giving way. One of the judges of the Superior Court 
of Yukon Territory told the writer that he knew by per¬ 
sonal observation of a shaft being put down one hundred 
and twenty feet without going below ice, and another gentle¬ 
man stated that he knew of a shaft two hundred and sixty 
feet deep, all the distance through solidly frozen earth. In 
taking out gold, miners often dig trenches several feet in 
length and two or three feet deep and fill them with wood, 
which, set on fire, melts the adjacent ice after which the 
gravel is washed and the gold secured. In the more ex¬ 
tensive mines steam is used to melt the ice. Steel tubes with 
sharp points numerously perforated are driven into the 
frozen gravel and steam is turned into the tubes, which 
thaws the adjacent earth, after which the gravel is hoisted 
by steam power in large iron buckets and put through the 
washery which eliminates the gold. It is claimed that the 
ice in the Klondike country makes it the poor man’s oppor¬ 
tunity, for the reason that water being scarce, mining ma¬ 
chinery, which requires large capital, is not extensively 
employed, giving the man with pick, shovel, and pan a 
chance to make a living and possibly a fortune. 

There were four denominations with church edifices in 
Dawson, Presbyterian, Methodist (both Canadian), Church 
of England, and Roman Catholics. The Presbyterians and 
the Roman Catholics each have hospitals which have 
afforded shelter and healing to many a stranded and helpless 
fortune seeker. 

The distance from Dawson to Fairbanks by the Yukon 


ALASKA 


197 


and Tanana Rivers is one thousand miles—seven hun¬ 
dred miles on the former and three hundred on the 
latter. At Eagle the line is crossed between the posses¬ 
sions of Great Britain and the United States, where the 
steamer is held while the revenue officers search the baggage 
of passengers and the cargo. I have entered the ports of 
and crossed the dividing lines between many countries on 
both hemispheres, and I regret to say that the United States 
customs laws are the most vexatious of any I have ever 
encountered. 


Yukon Flats 

A short distance above Circle City, which, notwithstand¬ 
ing its pretentious name, is only a straggling village, with 
a very small number of inhabitants, nearly all of whom were 
wretchedly poor Indians, we entered the Yukon Flats, 
through which the Yukon River flows for two hundred and 
seventy miles, having an average width of about sixty miles. 
This entire area was once a lake, but on its southwestern 
boundary a gash one hundred and sixty miles in length has 
been slowly cut through the mountain by the continuous 
flow of the waters to a depth sufficient to drain the lake. 
Through this vast tract, dotted with innumerable islands, 
the river meanders in numerous channels of varying depth, 
forming in many instances bayous, sloughs, and lagoons, 
frequently cutting new channels and again forming sandbars 
where but recently the deepest currents flowed, making it 
the terror, if not the despair of the navigator. Special 
pilots are employed by navigation companies whose duty it 
is to watch the changing channels and guard the steamers 
against being stranded. But notwithstanding their vigilance 
and skill, it is not unusual for steamers to be caught in these 
treacherous shoals. The steamer Seattle No. 3, upon which 


198 


THE STONE OF HELP 


I was a passenger, ran upon a sandbar almost immediately 
upon entering the flats, where she remained seventy-two 
hours struggling vainly for freedom, when the steamer 
Susie came along and took off the impatient passengers, but 
leaving the crew of her unfortunate sister to struggle on 
until by unloading her freight upon a neighboring sand¬ 
bank and the use of powerful machinery and steel wire cable 
they might drag her into the channel, reload her cargo, and 
continue the voyage. The lower Yukon Flats are more 
extensive than the upper. They are probably five hundred 
miles in length and vary in width from a few miles at the 
upper northeast limit to four hundred miles at the river’s 
mouth. Through these extensive flats the Yukon River 
flows in many channels, forming at its mouth a vast delta 
and having more the appearance of a great inland sea 
studded with islands than of a river flowing on to lose itself 
in the ocean. 


Arctic Circle 

At about 3:30 a. m., July 17, we crossed that imaginary 
line known as the arctic circle, and for about three hours we 
were voyaging in the frigid zone. Had we been there 
twenty-five days earlier, we might almost have seen the 
midnight sun, for at this point from the 21st to 25th of 
June the sun is below the horizon only thirty minutes out 
of the twenty-four hours. On one of the nights spent upon 
the sandbar, when the sky was almost cloudless, the writer 
watched the sun go down at 10145 p. M., and rise again at 
1115 a. m., having been below the horizon two and a half 
hours. During the period of disappearance daylight was 
but slightly diminished, scarcely more than would be caused 
in the States by a clouded sky at high noon. At that period 
of the year there is no night in that part of the world, but 


ALASKA 


199 


at midwinter for six weeks there is no day. Striking an 
average for the year they have the same amount of daylight 
and darkness as have people who live at the equator. 


Fairbanks 

At Fort Gibbon we changed steamers and began the ascent 
of the Tanana River to the newly founded town of Fair¬ 
banks, named in honor of the Vice-President of the United 
States, where within a radius of thirty miles extensive placer 
gold mines have been discovered. The site upon which 
the town was built was three years previously an undisturbed 
wilderness. At the time of my visit it had an estimated 
population of thirty-five hundred. Except a few frame 
business houses, it was a city of log cabins, many of which 
were small and but one story high—dirty, dismal dens, in 
which idle miners lodged, while some were of larger dimen¬ 
sions, and in a few instances two stories high. Not a few 
of them were neatly constructed and usually where wives 
were in charge they were tastefully furnished, cleanly and 
attractive. The streets were almost entirely unimproved 
except that in the business localities and the better residence 
parts there were plank sidewalks. There were about twenty 
saloons, each one paying a license fee of $1,500. The sale 
of intoxicating liquors was absolutely prohibited in Alaska 
for several years succeeding American occupation, but by 
act of Congress, it was not only legalized but was made 
almost the only source of support for public schools in in¬ 
corporated towns. In a town where the population was 500 
and less than 1,000 the license fee was $500; and where the 
population was 1,000 and less than 1,500, $1,000; and where 
the population was 1,500 or over, $1,500. One half of the 
license fees went to the support of the public schools. 


200 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Where there were no saloons there could be no public 
schools, as other sources of revenue were insignificant. The 
larger the number of saloons in a town, the larger the school 
fund. Every year there was a new enumeration taken to 
ascertain what the license fee should be. The saloon keepers 
were trying to keep the number down so that their license 
fee would be small, while the school directors were trying 
to keep the number up so as to make the school revenue 
as large as possible. Every school-teacher was humiliated 
by the fact that his salary came almost exclusively and 
directly from the saloons, and parents who had any decency 
were put to shame by the fact that if their children had 
school advantages it was because of revenue derived from 
vice. The internal revenue system of our government which 
makes the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors one 
of the chief sources of its support is bad enough, but no¬ 
where else has it descended to the infamous policy imposed 
upon Alaska, of making the public schools of incorporated 
towns almost wholly dependent for their existence upon 
the most “gigantic crime of crimes” ever perpetrated upon 
human society. Everywhere in Alaska people were saying 
“No saloons, no schools,” and the saloon keepers posed as 
public benefactors. In these saloons gambling goes on day 
and night with no attempt at concealment. The wide doors 
open upon the streets and on summer days the gamblers 
seated about tables are plainly seen by the passer-by. Here 
men who have made small fortunes, and possibly large ones, 
in the mines sometimes lose all in a few hours. A miner 
was reported who had recently cleaned up $36,000, went 
into Fairbanks, got drunk, and lost it all in one night; and 
he was but one of many. The professional gambler lives 
and fattens on the hard-earned money of the foolish, reck¬ 
less miner. In the broadest possible sense the town was 


ALASKA 


201 


wide open. There was no apparent respect shown for the 
Sabbath. Saloons (which were always gambling dens), 
brothels, stores, shops, mechanical industries, and common 
labor went forward on the Sabbath as on week days. It was 
impossible to foretell what the future of this city would be. 
Like Jonah’s gourd, it had quickly grown to existing pro¬ 
portions, but might as suddenly wither and die. All would 
depend upon the extent and richness of the gold mines. 
Many believed that they would not be exhausted in a cen¬ 
tury, while others were far less sanguine. New and rich 
strikes were announced almost daily, but nothing was said 
about mines that at first promised well and then suddenly 
failed. Booming methods were vigorously applied and 
speculation ran high. A new gold field had been recently 
discovered on the Kantishina River near the base of Mount 
McKinley, one hundred and twelve miles southwest of Fair¬ 
banks, and a “stampede” in that direction had already set in. 
Whether it would help or hurt this new city remained to be 
seen. It was certain that capital was becoming timid and 
the real estate market was correspondingly dull. Should 
the railroad which was planned and partly constructed be¬ 
tween Seward, on the south coast, and Dawson, a distance 
of about five hundred miles, cross the Tanana River at 
Fairbanks, its future would be assured. There were but 
three churches in the town—Presbyterian, Protestant Epis¬ 
copal, and Roman Catholic. The first would accommodate 
one hundred and fifty people, the second one hundred, and 
the third two hundred. The total average attendance of 
the three congregations did not exceed two hundred and 
fifty. The total membership of the two Protestant churches 
named did not exceed seventy-five, and they were quite lack¬ 
ing in the aggressive spirit. What was needed was a man 
of the temper and spirit of William Taylor, who in the 


202 


THE STONE OF HELP 


early history of San Francisco could make a pulpit of a dry- 
goods box, sing like a seraph, and preach like an apostle, 
and who could go into the streets lined with gambling dens 
and thronged with men of all ages, attract them with sacred 
songs, and preach to them the unsearchable riches of Christ. 
The work of the Lord should be carried on here as openly 
and as vigorously as is the work of the devil. In the person 
of Dr. John Parsons we had a wise, capable, and devoted 
superintendent of the Alaska Mission, but it was impossible 
for him to do the aggressive work demanded in that city 
and at the same time supervise the work in general. At 
great sacrifice he and his noble wife cheerfully accepted the 
task of founding the Methodist Episcopal Church in Fair¬ 
banks, where during the long, cold winter they would live 
in a log cabin of two or three small rooms, and subsist upon 
such food as could be obtained in a miner’s camp. The 
stress and strain was too great to be endured for any con¬ 
siderable time and assistance was sorely needed. There 
were already a number of Methodists in this new city, some 
from the States and some from Canada, who would form 
the nucleus of the new organization. That was a strategic 
hour and was not permitted to pass unimproved. A church 
has been organized, a church and parsonage have been 
erected, and religious privileges have been provided for a 
needy community. 

Nome 

Leaving Fairbanks by steamer upon the Tanana River, 
we returned to the Yukon River and followed that river to 
where it discharges its waters into Norton Sound, and 
thence to Saint Michaels, where we took ship for Nome, 
another of the great mining camps of Alaska, situated a few 
miles west by north from Cape Nome on the Bering Sea. 


ALASKA 


203 


As there is no harbor, ships cast anchor in a roadstead two 
or three miles from shore and all freight and passengers 
must be transferred to lighters, steam launches, and row 
boats—no easy task when the sea is rough, as is frequently 
the case. 

In 1898, when gold was discovered on this coast, Nome 
was an obscure and almost unknown Eskimo village, utterly 
oblivious to the vast wealth buried beneath the sand upon 
which it stood and the marshy territory lying inland. In 
1905 there was an estimated population of four thousand. 
The whole immediate coastline for many miles had been 
dug up and mines had been extensively opened in the ad¬ 
jacent territory extending back into the mountains twenty 
or thirty miles. A narrow-gauge railroad had been built 
from the coast across the marshy plain to the foothills, about 
fifteen miles distant, and was to be lengthened indefinitely 
to reach the mining camps further up in the mountain range. 
This is the most northerly railroad in the world. The 
ground upon which it is built is spongy and marshy and the 
roadbed is the worst I have ever seen. There are several 
other mining districts said to be very rich, known as Solo¬ 
mon, Council, Bluff, Kongarok, and still others in the farther 
north. There are vast tracts of unexplored territory in 
Alaska which are believed to be as rich as that now being 
worked. 

The United States paid Russia $7,200,000, gold, for 
Alaska, while the amount of gold that had been taken out 
since 1867 was nearly $100,000,000. Much of the quartz 
is of low grade, producing not more than three dollars to 
the ton, but with modern mining machinery can be taken 
out at a large profit. There are mines now being worked 
where the gold-bearing quartz cannot be exhausted in a 
century. Extensive and rich placer mines are being worked 


204 


THE STONE OF HELP 


at Fairbanks, Seward, Nome, and other places. Looking 
at the vast territory along the coast and far into the interior, 
piled high with mountains and apparently worthless, one 
can hardly think of it as other than nature’s great “scrap- 
heap.” But though a scrap-heap, it contains much in the 
line of minerals—gold, iron, tin, coal, copper, oil, and 
gypsum—of immense value. The greatest obstacle to be 
overcome at Nome, as in the Klondike and the Fairbanks 
districts, is the scarcity of water for mining purposes; but it 
is not insuperable. Water was being forced to a height of 
seven hundred feet, and any other height will be scaled 
where gold is found in paying quantities. Nome had the 
appearance of greater solidity than either Dawson or Fair¬ 
banks, and if the territory for which it is the seaport proves 
to be as rich in placer and quartz mines and other minerals 
as many prospectors claim it is, it is destined to have con¬ 
tinuous growth. 

Here there were three churches—Roman Catholic, Prot¬ 
estant Episcopal, and Congregational—reaching practically 
but a small per cent of the people. Vice, though less open 
and shameless than in Fairbanks, was prevalent. Saloons 
were numerous, and in every instance gambling dens, but 
carried on usually behind screened doors. The Sabbath 
was ignored and business of all kinds went on as on week 
days. Here, as at Fairbanks, the Methodist Episcopal 
Church had been negligent of its opportunities and duty. 
More people were there who were Methodists at home than 
of any other Protestant denomination. They wondered 
why it was that the authorities of their church have been 
so negligent. Not finding a place of worship of their own 
denomination, many had drifted away into indifference and 
ungodliness. Upon no denomination was there a greater, 
or so great, a responsibility resting to supply religious 


ALASKA 


205 

privileges to those far Northwest mining centers as upon 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Alaska Agriculture 

The agricultural possibilities of the interior of Alaska 
are as yet an unsolved problem. The general government 
has established several experimental farms on a small scale 
and the results are regarded as upon the whole quite satis¬ 
factory. That there are vast valleys along the Yukon, 
Tanana, and other rivers with rich soil is fully demon¬ 
strated ; but whether in view of climatic conditions they can 
be profitably cultivated is the important question. The 
winters are long and the summers short. As already stated, 
anywhere in these valleys ice is reached in midsummer at a 
depth of two to four feet. Consequently, vegetable life 
cannot root deeply. The roots of the forest trees are matted 
upon the surface and when upturned look like immense 
spiders. They naturally avoid the ice which is always near 
and remain upon the surface, where in summer they secure 
the needed warmth. But it is claimed that there are com¬ 
pensations. The soil is very rich after it is tamed and the 
summer days are very long. Beginning with the middle 
of May and on to the first of September there is practically 
no night, and consequently there is no time lost in the 
growth of vegetation. The surface soil warms quickly and 
growth is rapid. Besides, the moisture caused by the slowly 
melting ice by capillary attraction rises and nourishes vege¬ 
tation, so that if there should be a scarcity of summer 
showers—which rarely occurs—there would be no drought. 
It is already fully proven that potatoes, turnips, carrots, 
radishes, peas, beans, cabbage, spinach, and cauliflower 
flourish here. Wild fruits, such as blueberries, huckle¬ 
berries, red raspberries, black and red currants, gooseberries, 


206 


THE STONE OF HELP 


cranberries, and salmon berries, are found in great abun¬ 
dance. Tomatoes and cucumbers flourish if well started in 
hothouses. Cereals, such as spring wheat, barley, and oats, 
have been successfully produced. Norway and Sweden are 
about as far north as the Yukon valley and agriculture is 
successfully carried on in those countries. Were there as 
large populations here as in those countries, they would 
find it easier to subsist, as the soil is naturally richer. But 
it is not likely that farmers will flock to these northern re¬ 
gions in large numbers while there are vast areas of rich 
agricultural lands in more southern latitudes. 

Climate 

All who have wintered here claim that the climate is less 
trying than in the Middle and Eastern States. While the 
cold is sometimes intense, the atmosphere is very dry. 
When winter comes it remains without a thaw until the time 
for its final departure arrives. Besides, there are seldom 
high winds. There is rarely a time in the long winter nights 
when a candle cannot be used outdoors as readily as indoors. 
The miners use candles above ground and under ground in 
preference to kerosene or oil lamps. It is seldom that any¬ 
one freezes to death who is sober. Winter is the favorite 
season to “mush” on the trails. The word “mush” is said 
to be a perversion of the word “march.” A foreigner who 
found it difficult to say march, substituted “mush” and his 
fellow travelers adopted it, and now it is in universal use. 
Say to a Yukon dog “Get out,” and he pays not the slightest 
attention, but say “Mush,” and he instantly moves on. On 
the trail in winter, as well as for other purposes, the dog is 
indispensable, and consequently he is very numerous. In the 
summer the streets are thronged with the canine species. 


ALASKA 


207 


It is the period of his vacation, and he is treated with great 
respect. He stretches himself calmly in the middle of the 
street, on the sidewalk, in the doors of business houses and 
cabins, and is seldom required to change his location. A 
teamster will turn aside and drive past, or a footman will 
yield the sidewalk if necessary while “Bruno” slumbers on 
undisturbed. In walking a distance of five blocks in Fair¬ 
banks, I counted one hundred dogs. Often in the twilight 
of the summer night dogs join in a howl concert and then 
the welkin rings. For downright dismalness, the howl of 
the dogs has no equal. But when winter comes then Bruno 
has something to do besides thronging the streets and giving 
hideous concerts. Then he is the beast of burden. He is 
harnessed tandem to sleds and drags supplies to mining 
camps and miners’ tools and baggage over long trails on 
stampedes to new gold fields. He hauls wood to camps and 
towns, and to the banks of rivers to supply steamers during 
the season for navigation. At one point where the steamer 
stopped for a fresh supply of wood, the woodchopper told 
the writer that the previous winter his six dogs hauled three 
hundred and fifty cords of wood a distance of half a mile, 
where it was corded on the bank of the river. 

Inhabitants 

The population of Alaska consists of Indians and white 
people of various nationalities. The Indians, of whom there 
are about thirty-six thousand, are largely of the Eskimo 
stock and are in important characteristics unlike the Ameri¬ 
can Indian. In southeastern Alaska and the Aleutian 
Islands they strongly resemble the Japanese, and there is 
good reason to believe that originally they belonged to the 
Japanese family. But whatever their origin, they are 


208 


THE STONE OF HELP 


rapidly degenerating and decreasing in numbers. The vices 
of the white man from the time of the Russian occupation, 
and the invasion of the fur-trader until the present, to¬ 
gether with the introduction since American occupation of 
intoxicating liquors, have told sadly and destructively upon 
these aborigines. When the United States first took pos¬ 
session and for several years thereafter, the sale of intoxi¬ 
cants was absolutely prohibited and the natives were 
thoroughly protected, but the demand for revenue has been 
heard and now saloons are licensed by the federal govern¬ 
ment. Although the law forbids sale to the Indians, liquor 
dealers circumvent and disregard the law, as they do the 
prohibitive features of all laws where enforcement is lax, 
and the Indians are in many instances debauched by 
drunkenness. In the earlier days Russians frequently mar¬ 
ried or made concubines of Indian women, and the result 
is seen in a class of half-bloods who are neither Indian nor 
Russian. There are a few Americans known as squaw-men 
who have married or are living in adulterous relations with 
Indian women, and their offspring are naturally outcasts. 
These people are found on the seacoast and along the rivers 
in the interior, gaining a precarious existence by hunting 
and fishing. Rarely are they engaged in any industries, 
especially where capital is required. Some of them, both 
men and women, are adepts in the manufacture of curios, 
which they profitably vend to tourists and curio collectors. 
The trend of the Indian in Alaska is toward extinction, and 
it is only a question of time when he will reach the goal, for 
goal it will be, as there is no probability that he will ever 
be elevated to anything above a very low grade of civiliza¬ 
tion. Notwithstanding the successes which have been 
achieved in some places by the heroic efforts of Christian 
missionaries, it is conceded by all that the general trend 


ALASKA 


209 


is in the direction of final disappearance. The white popula¬ 
tion is estimated at about thirty thousand, although there 
are not a few who think the number is greater. At best 
the number can only be approximated, as it is always chang¬ 
ing. It is not only changing in numbers but is very migra¬ 
tory in character. There are town sites that a few years 
ago boasted considerable population, where at present there 
is scarcely an inhabitant. Except in a very few instances 
all towns fail where there are no mineral deposits to be 
exploited. Scarcely anybody is there to stay. I met but one 
person, and I questioned many, who expected to make 
Alaska his permanent home. All were there for gold, and 
whether they succeeded or failed, they expected to leave 
the country at an early day. And yet doubtless not a few 
will remain and become the permanent pioneer residents. 
Families are now there that will never go outside, and their 
descendants will be natives of Alaska. The first gold- 
seekers who went to California did not intend to remain, 
but some were not able to get out of the country, while 
others stayed from choice, and so it will be with Alaska, 
and there will be an indigenous population. The white 
population is divided into “che-chackos” and “sour-doughs.” 
“Che-chacko” is an Indian word and has about the same 
meaning as our English “tenderfoot.” A che-chacko is one 
who has just entered the Yukon country and exhibits his 
lack of information in various ways. “Sour-dough” means 
dough spoiled in the process of fermentation and baking, 
resulting in sour bread, upon which miners not infrequently 
subsist during the winter; therefore, a “sour-dough” is one 
who has been in the country long enough to see the ice go 
out of the Yukon at least once, and who has acquired in¬ 
formation which experience alone can give. The “sour¬ 
dough” sometimes puts on airs and looks upon the “che- 


210 THE STONE OF HELP 

chacko” somewhat as in college a sophomore looks upon a 
freshman. 


Alaska Methodism 

The Methodist Episcopal Church has accomplished but 
little in Alaska for the reason that it had attempted but little. 
Slow to enter the country, it had been feeble in its efforts, 
and consequently success had been small. Up to the Annual 
Meeting of 1905, we had touched only slightly the south¬ 
eastern border of the country. We had a church in Ketchi¬ 
kan, a thriving town at the southeastern extremity of the 
country, with a population of about one thousand, the dis¬ 
tributing point for a large tract of mining country. Here 
we had a neat church and parsonage which had been re¬ 
fitted and improved the previous year. The Rev. J. A. 
Chapman was the pastor, and had scored a signal suc¬ 
cess. Here the annual meeting of the mission was held 
under the direction of Bishop David H. Moore, June 27, 
whose presence and ministry were a source of great encour¬ 
agement to the preachers and inspiration to the work. Up 
the coast two hundred and fifty miles from Ketchikan are 
the towns of Douglass and Juneau, on nearly opposite sides 
of the bay, the former having at that time a population of 
sixteen hundred and fifty and the latter two thousand. 
Douglass is the site of the great Treadwell quartz mines, 
where a vast amount of gold is taken out annually and where 
the quantity of gold-bearing quartz is inexhaustible, and 
where there is an additional population of six hundred. 
Here we had an inferior church with very poor parsonage 
accommodations adjoining. The Rev. L. B. Pedersen had 
been the industrious and enterprising pastor for two years 
and the church was then being served by the Rev. R. V. P. 
Dunlap. 


ALASKA 


211 


At the most prosperous town in southeastern Alaska, 
Juneau, the Rev. F. A. LaViolette had been the pastor two 
years and had accomplished a good work under very difficult 
conditions. Two years previous he commenced his work 
there at zero. We owned nothing and had no membership. 
At the time of my visit we had a commodious frame church, 
centrally located, well furnished, with an auditorium that 
would seat two hundred and fifty people, a lecture room 
adjoining, and a basement with gymnasium and reading 
room, the cost of the whole, including the lot, having been 
about $12,000. The Board of Church Extension purchased 
the lot at a cost of $4,000 and the money to erect the build¬ 
ing was raised on the ground. The whole was paid for 
except $800, the greater part of which was pledged. Up 
the coast one hundred miles further at the head of the Lynn 
Canal, is Skaguay, boasting a population in 1898 of eight 
thousand, but which in 1905 had been reduced to about one 
thousand. Previous to the building of the White Pass Rail¬ 
road all miners entering the Klondike country landed there 
and largely procured their outfit for taking trail across the 
mountains. As a merchandising town it grew quickly to 
large dimensions, and it as quickly faded away when the 
railroad from the head of Lynn Canal was completed across 
the White Pass to White Horse on the headwaters of the 
Yukon River, thus providing for transportation of passen¬ 
gers and freight direct from Canada and the States to the 
Klondike. Here we have a neat property consisting of 
church and parsonage, out of debt. Dr. John Parsons, the 
superintendent of the mission, had been pastor here for two 
years and had accomplished all that could have been ex¬ 
pected. 

Bishop Moore decided to open two new points—Fair¬ 
banks, of which I have already written, and Seward at the 


212 


THE STONE OF HELP 


head of Resurrection Bay, on the north coast of the Gulf 
of Alaska. Seward is the base of supply for a large mining 
district where there are rich deposits of gold, coal, copper, 
tin, and other minerals. It is also the terminus of a rail¬ 
road, about fifty miles of which was then in operation. It 
was conceded by all that Seward would be the great city of 
the south coast of Alaska. To this new and important 
point the Rev. L. B. Pedersen was appointed. Courage¬ 
ously, with his heroic wife and four children, he went to a 
town in which we had nothing, and in which no shelter 
had been provided for himself and family. It was confi¬ 
dently expected that the Board of Church Extension would 
furnish the money to erect a parsonage and church, and the 
Missionary Society the money to provide a comfortable 
support, and both expectations were realized. 

Metlakatla 

Considerable missionary work was being done among the 
Indians by the Presbyterian, Protestant Episcopal, Roman 
Catholic, and Russian Orthodox Greek Churches. The 
Methodist Episcopal Church had not as yet commenced 
work in the interest of these people, except at Unalaska, 
where there was an Industrial Home for Indian children 
under the auspices of the Woman’s Home Missionary So¬ 
ciety. The most interesting and important piece of Indian 
mission work the writer was privileged to see was at 
Metlakatla, on Annette Island. The history of this Indian 
mission is most interesting. In 1856, Mr. William Duncan, 
a Yorkshire Englishman and a layman, became a missionary 
to the wild and savage tribes in the vicinity of Fort Simpson, 
British Columbia. The bishop of the Church of England in 
Canada urged him to accept clerical orders, which he de¬ 
clined, believing that he could render his best service as a 


ALASKA 


213 


layman. The account the writer heard him give of the 
perils to which he was exposed, his privations, and hair¬ 
breadth escapes from death at the hands of the savages was 
most thrilling. He spent eight months among them, master¬ 
ing their language before he attempted to utter a word in 
public or to give religious instruction. Finally, when he 
had so far mastered the language as to be able to speak 
intelligently, he arranged for services on a Sabbath in the 
wigwams of eight chiefs, and preached the same sermon in 
each wigwam. In these services the Indians heard prayer 
to the true God and listened to the message of salvation 
through Jesus Christ for the first time, and with deepest 
interest. The next morning an old Indian woman met an 
officer of the fort and exclaimed, “The people are all awed; 
we have heard the word of God.” 

A bishop of the Church of England in Canada persisted 
in demanding that the work should be under his jurisdiction, 
and Mr. Duncan as persistently refused to submit for the 
reason that he did not believe that the Indians were capable 
of understanding the rites and ceremonies of that church. 
The result was that Mr. Duncan left Fort Simpson and 
transferred his people to Annette Island, leaving the prop¬ 
erty he had accumulated behind. The island contains sixty 
square miles, and was at the time of the transfer an un¬ 
broken forest. Seeing the necessity of protection against 
the traders of the coast and their vices, Mr. Duncan went to 
Washington and asked the President and Congress to grant 
the island named above for the exclusive use of this Indian 
colony. The grant was made, and Mr. Duncan was given 
absolute control of the island, and no trader can transact 
business with the natives. The President appointed Mr. 
Duncan commissioner for his people, and he was their sole 
ruler. 


214 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Metlakatla was founded in 1888 and there was in 
I 9°5 a population of seven hundred. The town was regu¬ 
larly laid out with wide streets, in which the stumps of trees 
remained. The streets were not graded, and except the parts 
occupied by board walks were grown up with underbrush. 
The houses were frame, commodious as to size, usually two 
stories high and without partitions, so that, as a rule, the 
houses have each two rooms, one below and one above. 
There were a sawmill, a fish cannery, and a community store 
where supplies of all kinds were sold at reasonable prices. 
There was a good schoolhouse, and all children of proper 
age were required to attend school. The most prominent 
and important building in the town was the house of wor¬ 
ship, which was the center of interest to all the people. The 
edifice was substantially built of wood, well finished, and 
would seat seven hundred people, the entire population of 
the town. Mr. Duncan preached to his people twice each 
Sabbath and had the oversight of all religious as well as 
secular affairs. He was seventy-three years of age, hale 
and hearty, and may easily serve his people another decade. 
He is still living (1914) and carrying on his work. There 
had not been a murder committed by a member of the com¬ 
munity in thirty-five years, and there was rarely an offense 
which required a judicial investigation. When one remem¬ 
bers that these people were uncivilized when Mr. Duncan 
found them, and notes the progress that had been made, one 
might well exclaim, “What hath God wrought!” 

On Sabbath afternoon at Ketchikan, in connection with 
the annual meeting of the mission, there was held an Indian 
service under the direction of a native local preacher. About 
fifty Indians were present, representing three tribes— 
Tsimsheans, Hydahs, and Thlinkets. The preacher spoke 
in English and his message was translated into two 


ALASKA 


215 


dialects by two Indians, after which the meeting was open 
for remarks by the people. Several spoke in their native 
tongue and offered prayer. One, who was educated at 
Marietta College, Ohio, and was then a minister of the 
Presbyterian Church, spoke in good English, and called 
attention to the fact that a meeting of representatives of 
three tribes could not have been held under the same roof 
fifty years before without bloodshed. Then these three 
tribes were deadly enemies and met only to shed blood. 
Then they were clothed in skins of animals or blankets; 
now they were in civilized costume and greeted each other 
as brothers. The gospel of Christ alone, he asserted, had 
brought about the change. 

Alaska is a difficult field and large results in statistics 
cannot be expected at an early day. The population is 
mixed, transient, and constantly changing as new mining 
districts are opened, but it should not on that account be 
neglected. It is a part of our country, and many of our 
Methodist people and others for whom we are responsible 
for religious privileges are going there and will continue to 
go in increasing numbers. We must care for them or be 
rightly charged with neglecting a very important duty. No 
man who has a heart can go through Alaska and see the 
young men who are “mushing” to the mines, exposed to all 
the temptations and vices of a new mining country, and note 
the many that have already become wrecks, without being 
deeply stirred and intensely anxious to throw around them 
the restraints which the Christian Church alone can furnish. 

Alaska had been to me previously only a name. But, 
having seen it, its vastness and its crying needs, it becomes 
an empire of untold wealth and marvelous possibilities, 
already containing a considerable population, and destined 
as its vast mineral resources are exploited to be thronged 


2l6 


THE STONE OF HELP 


with some of the best young life of the American nation. 
Alaska should be taken seriously by the Methodist Episcopal 
Church and provided for generously. 

In the visitation above described Dr. John Parsons, the 
superintendent of the Alaska Mission, was my traveling 
companion. He and his wife have given many years of 
faithful and successful service to our work in that great 
northwestern field, and have made a record of which they 
may be religiously proud and for which the whole church 
should be devoutly thankful. 


CHAPTER XXVI 


SOUTHERN ASIA—1906 

The term “Southern Asia,” as employed by the Board 
of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
includes the Indian peninsula, Burma, the Malay States, the 
larger half of the Eastern archipelago, the principal islands 
of which are Sumatra, Java, Celebes, Borneo, and the 
Philippines. 

India 

India proper is triangular in shape, the Himalaya range 
on the north forming an irregular base, with Afghanistan, 
the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean for its western 
boundary and the Bay of Bengal its eastern. The base and 
two sides of the triangle are each about nineteen hundred 
miles in length and contain one million five hundred and 
seventy-four thousand four hundred and sixty square miles 
of territory. The topography of the country is varied, con¬ 
sisting of mountain ranges, extensive jungles, vast plains, 
and fertile valleys. The valley of the Ganges is about ten 
times as large as that of the Nile and is said to support a 
population of one hundred million. The country as a 
whole produces a great variety of cereals, vegetables, and 
fruits, and vast quantities of rice, cotton, tea, coffee, sugar, 
indigo, etc. Though lying within the tropics, by reason of 
lofty mountain ranges, vast plains, and contiguous seas, 
east and west, it has great climatic variety, the average 
summer temperature in some parts being as high as ninety- 

217 


2l8 


THE STONE OF HELP 


five degrees, and in others as low as sixty degrees. There are 
four conditions that govern climate—temperature, latitude, 
altitude, proximity to plains and to sea. The rainfall in some 
parts of India is said to be greater than in any other place on 
the globe, amounting to from five hundred to six hundred 
inches in a single year. The great valleys are swept annually 
by monsoons, upon which productiveness largely depends. 
If the monsoon does not come, harvest fails and famine 
ensues. When it is remembered that millions of the people 
live always on the edge of want, it is not surprising that 
when harvests fail multitudes die of starvation. The people 
of India are not a race or a nation, but a conglomeration of 
races that have been brought into the country by migrations 
and conquests, refusing to coalesce into one people, speaking 
many languages and dialects, and numbering approximately 
three hundred million. The great distinguishing feature 
of Hinduism is the caste system, that holds every person 
from infancy to old age in its relentless grasp. The four 
great castes are: (i) the priestly caste, that came from the 
mouth of Brahma; (2) the warrior caste, that came from 
the arm of Brahma; (3 the working caste, that came from 
the thigh of Brahma; (4) the menial caste that came from 
the foot of Brahma. In each of these castes there are 
numerous sub-castes, each one holding its victims as in a 
vise from birth to death. 

An English journal epitomizes the latest census of India 
as follows: 

The present population of India is over three hundred and fifteen 
million. The general average increase for fifty years has been about 
one million yearly. This is not very great, considering that the birth¬ 
rate is far higher than in any European country. But mortality has 
been very heavy, owing to famines and widespread epidemics, especially 
plague. Most of all the extraordinary mortality among infants, which 
obtains in India, checks the rate of increase. There are more males 


SOUTHERN ASIA 


219 


than females, the proportion being nine hundred and fifty-four females 
to every one thousand males. That ratio is declining, a fact attribu¬ 
table to the neglect of infant girls, a neglect often amounting to 
murder; to early marriage, premature motherhood, unskillful mid¬ 
wifery, and the hardships inflicted on young widows. The population 
of India is chiefly rural. In all that land there are only thirty cities of 
more than one hundred thousand inhabitants. Seventy-five per cent 
of the people live in villages of less than five hundred inhabitants. 
Some of the most interesting facts of the report have to do with 
religion. Hinduism comprises two thirds of the population, but during 
the years under report it relatively lost ground. For instance, the 
number of Hindus increased during the ten years by five per cent, 
but Mohammedans by seven per cent, Buddhists by thirteen per cent, 
and Christians by thirty-four per cent. The number of Indian Chris¬ 
tians has multiplied threefold during the last forty years. It is not 
all volumes of statistics that are interesting, but an Indian census 
report is one of the most fascinating and suggestive volumes any man 
can handle, whether his interest be political, sociological, educational, 
or religious. 

Burma 

For many years Burma was an independent state in south¬ 
eastern Asia, but was finally conquered and added to the 
British possessions in 1886. Its territorial area is one 
hundred and seventy-one thousand four hundred and thirty 
square miles and its population about eight million. Its 
capital, previous to the British conquest, was Mandalay, 
near the Isawadi, where the royal palace still stands, un¬ 
occupied. Rangoon, on the Rangoon River, near its en¬ 
trance into the Bay of Bengal, has been the capital since the 
British conquest. 

Buddhism is the prevailing religion. Buddha was born 
B. C. 552, in the country and tribe of the Sakhyas, at the 
base of the Napalese Himalayas, in India. He lived to be 
eighty years of age and died about B. C. 472. The exact 
date of his death is not known. At the age of twenty-nine 
he left his wife and only son for the life and struggles of 
a recluse. After seven years he believed himself possessed 


220 


THE STONE OF HELP 


of “perfect truth” and assumed the title of Buddha, “the 
enlightened.” He is represented to have received a sudden 
illumination as he sat under a Bo-tree—“tree of knowledge” 
—and then for forty-nine days passed through severe 
temptation as to whether he should keep to himself the 
knowledge won, or share it with the world. He decided to 
preach, and opened his mission at Benares, where he spent 
most of his time for forty-four years. He taught that there 
are four paramount truths: (i) existence is suffering; (2) 
the cause of pain is desire; (3) cessation of pain is possible 
through the suppression of desire; (4) the way to this is 
the knowledge and observance of the “good law” of Buddha. 
The end is Nirvana, which means the cessation of conscious 
existence. Buddhism has ceased to exist in India as a reli¬ 
gion, having been absorbed and assimilated by Hinduism. 
The number of adherents is estimated to be three hundred 
and fifty millions who are mainly in Burma, Ceylon, Tibet, 
China, and Japan. As a system of religion Buddhism has 
undergone many changes and is now divided into many 
sects and cults which war with each other. 

Malaysia 

Dr. W. F. Oldham says in his volume entitled India, 
Malaysia, and the Philippines: 

Malaysia differs very markedly from India in almost every regard. 
It does not consist of a continuous land area approaching continental 
proportions, nor is its population homogeneous, nor its civilization 
ancient; and it is not held under one political sway; nor can it be 
brought by any forces that appear in sight to a continuity of thought 
and aim. Malaysia consists of a peninsula in the southeast of Asia 
which points like a forefinger straight down at the southern pole. From 
the tip of the finger, stretching south and east and then up northward 
in the form of a crescent, is the most wonderful throw of islands in 
all the world. Some of these are of great size, as Borneo, New Guinea, 
and Sumatra, while thousands of them are little green specks that dot 


SOUTHERN ASIA 


221 


the ocean. The entire land area is about one million square miles. The 
population is estimated at about sixty million, of whom six millions are 
in Sumatra and over thirty millions are packed into the island of Java, 
with its less than sixty thousand square miles of area, parts of which 
are arid and untillable, being overcast with the slag of ancient volcanic 
outbursts. 

The people are Papuan, or Ocean Negritos, and Malays. 
The former are but slightly removed from savagery. They 
are largely nomadic. Among them are the Dyaks or head¬ 
hunters, who adorn their rude homes with the heads of their 
murdered enemies. Their savage, murderous habits have 
prevented their number from great increase. They are 
found chiefly in Borneo, New Guinea, and Sumatra. Their 
religion is of the lowest heathen type. The Malay is of a 
higher grade of civilization and is described as being of a 
kindly disposition and courteous manners—“a devoted 
father, a reasonable husband, a faithful friend, but bitter 
enemy.” In religion the Malay is Mohammedan. 

The peninsula and the archipelago are owned by Great 
Britain, Holland, and Germany. The Federated Malay 
States have a semiindependence, but are under the suzerainty 
of Great Britain, greatly to their advantage. What was a 
“waste, howling wilderness” is being transformed into a 
tropical garden. Extensive rubber plantations are supplant¬ 
ing tropical jungles, and two thirds of the world’s supply 
of tin is being taken from its mines. 

The principal islands of this group are Sumatra, 161,612 
square miles; Java, 50,554 square miles; Celebese, 71,470 
square miles; Borneo, 286,161 square miles. Their total 
population is 30,359,000. In religion these people are 
mainly heathen of a very low type, and Mohammedan of a 
very bigoted type. The Chinese, who are becoming numer¬ 
ous, adhere to their ancestral forms of worship. Several 


222 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Protestant missionary boards have representatives on the 
peninsula and on the islands mentioned, and are pressing 
forward aggressively along all lines of work, with, in 
numerous instances, signal success. 

The Philippines 

An unnamed writer, quoted by Dr. Oldham, gives the 
following word-picture of the Philippines: “A magnificent 
rosary of glowing islands that nature has hung above the 
heaving bosom of the warm Pacific. The combination of 
mountain and plain, lake and stream, everywhere rich with 
glossy leafage, clustered growths of bamboo and palm; 
fields of yellow cane, groves of bananas, great reaches of 
growing rice—results from an abundant rainfall—a rich 
soil, an even climate and the warm influence of equatorial 
waters—tend to make a picture richer by far than nature 
ever painted in the temperate zone.” 

In the group there are more than two thousand islands, 
some of which have considerable areas, while many more 
are mere dots on the bosom of the great ocean. The largest 
are Luzon, Mindanao, Mindoro, Camarines, Samar, Leyte, 
Ponay, Negras, Cebu, Bohal, and Palawan. The entire 
area is estimated at one hundred and fourteen thousand 
three hundred and fifty-six square miles, and the population 
at eight million. Most of these islands are thinly populated, 
and not a few of the smaller ones are not inhabited at all. 

The rainfall from August to December is always great 
and sometimes torrential. From the first of December to 
the middle of March these islands are delightful in climate 
and magnificent in verdure. 

The Tagalogs, Visayans, and Ilocanos are the most im¬ 
portant tribes. The non-Christian population is estimated 
at something more than a million. These are the Moros, 


SOUTHERN ASIA 


223 


who inhabit the Sulu Archipelago and portions of Min¬ 
danao and are intensely Mohammedan. There are several 
smaller tribes who are pagan. The great mass, however, 
up to the American occupation were Roman Catholic. The 
above is a mere outline description of our great mission 
field, or, rather, of our several fields, included in the term 
“Southern Asia.” 


CHAPTER XXVII 


THE INDIA MISSION 
Founded 

At the meeting of the General Missionary Committee, 
held November 9, 1852, Dr. Durbin, corresponding secre¬ 
tary, called attention to the great need of the people of 
India and urged that provision be made for opening a 
mission in that country. After full consideration, the fol¬ 
lowing action was taken: “That a fund be created and placed 
at the discretion of the Board of Bishops, for commencing 
a mission in India,” and an appropriation of $7,500 was 
made for that purpose. It was not until 1856 that the work 
was inaugurated, though the General Committee continued 
the appropriation from year to year, awaiting the appoint¬ 
ment of the first missionary. 

In the year named the Rev. William Butler, a member of 
the New England Conference, a native of Ireland, who had 
formerly been a minister of the Wesleyan Church, was 
commissioned to proceed to India and determine the field 
that should be occupied. April 8, 1856, a farewell meeting 
was held at Lynn, Massachusetts, in the church of which 
Dr. Butler had been pastor, and in the presence of a large 
congregation Dr. Durbin handed him his commission, and 
the next day he and his wife sailed out of Boston harbor for 
Calcutta, where, after four months spent in England and 
Ireland, they arrived September 10, 1856. 

After consulting Dr. Duff and several missionaries of 
224 



SAM FAIRFIELD MEMORIAL BOYS’ COLLEGE, LUCKNOW, ON CAMPUS OF REID CHRISTIAN COLLEGE 












































































































































b 















* 


















































































. 










































THE INDIA MISSION 


225 


other boards, the lieutenant-governor of the Northwest 
Provinces, and the Secretary to the India government, 
and after a careful study of the whole field, Dr. Butler 
decided to recommend that there be sent out “eight men for 
Lucknow, four for Bareilly and Moradabad respectively, 
three for Fyzabad and two for Shahjahanpore, Budaon and 
Philibheet, each; making altogether twenty-five mission¬ 
aries.” On his way to Bareilly, passing through Allahabad, 
he was generously provided by the American Presbyterian 
Church with a native Christian interpreter, Joel T. Janvier, 
who remained with Dr. Butler and became the first native 
preacher of our church in India. 

A fortnight after reaching Bareilly, May 31, 1857, the 
Sepoy rebellion broke out and many were killed, a few 
escaping to Nynee Tal, in the Himalaya Mountains, among 
whom were Dr. Butler and family. 

In September, 1858, after an absence of about sixteen 
months, Dr. Butler returned to the plains, stopping at Luck¬ 
now, where the work was commenced in September, 1858. 
Here he met a cordial welcome from the English commis¬ 
sioner, who turned over a commodious property that had 
been confiscated by the authorities, saying: “Here is house 
room for six men. Go into these houses and occupy them. 
No one shall disturb you while I am here.” Our mission 
still owns the property and there is no probability that our 
ownership will ever be called in question. 

At the close of the first regular meeting of the mission, 
the appointments were: Lucknow, William Butler (super¬ 
intendent), R. Pierce, J. Baume; Shahjahanpur, J. W. 
Waugh; Bareilly, J. L. Humphrey and Mrs. J. R. Downey; 
Moradabad, C. W. Judd and J. Parsons; Bijnour, E. W. 
Parker; Nynee Tal, J. M. Thoburn and S. Knowles. 

The territory to be occupied by these missionaries was 


226 


THE STONE OF HELP 


described by Dr. Butler as follows: “Our field, then, is the 
valley of the Ganges, with the adjacent hill range, a tract 
of India nearly as large as England, without Scotland, being 
nearly four hundred and fifty miles long, with an average 
breadth of one hundred and fifty miles, containing more 
than eighteen millions of people who are thus left on our 
hands by the well-understood courtesy of other missionary 
societies in Europe and America, who respect our occupancy 
and consider us pledged to bring the means of grace and 
salvation within the reach of these dying millions.” 

The superintendent said to these missionaries that they 
would have but one language to master—the Hindustani— 
in order to preach the gospel of Christ to the eighteen 
million people living in the territory above described. 

Bounds Enlarged 

But the above described bounds were destined to be over¬ 
stepped. Bishop Thoburn, in his booklet, India and South¬ 
ern Asia, tells how it came about: 

In the meantime, in the providence of God, William Taylor reached 
India on one of his great tours, and not knowing any native language, 
very naturally began to preach wherever he went in English. God 
blessed the word from his lips and many were converted. In some 
places Methodist churches were organized, and almost before they 
knew it the missionaries found that their church was represented by 
zealous Christian believers in western and southern India, as well as 
in Bengal. It seemed unreasonable to hold aloof from the churches, 
especially as they asked to be incorporated in the common body and 
eagerly sought to be provided with the oversight on which all Meth¬ 
odist churches depend. In this unlooked-for way our little work in 
Rohilcund and Oudh expanded until it reached not only all parts of 
the great empire of India but also extended down the Malay Peninsula 
to the great city of Singapore. 

The Bishop modestly leaves untold the important part 
he played in bringing about the visit of William Taylor to 


THE INDIA MISSION 


227 


India. It was on the pressing invitation of James M. Tho- 
burn that William Taylor included India in “one of his 
great missionary tours.” Thoburn, who was always a 
“seer,” clearly discerned that the original boundaries of our 
missions must be not only disregarded, but entirely wiped 
out. The organization of English-speaking churches in the 
great centers of the empire would inevitably lead to the 
evangelization of natives and their organization into native 
churches. William Taylor was the man who in “the provi¬ 
dence of God” was to make the extension of our work all 
over the empire and the Malay peninsula and to the Philip¬ 
pine Islands a necessity. 


CHAPTER XXVIII 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA—1906-07 

Having been authorized by the Board of Missions to 
attend the India Jubilee at Bareilly, the nine Conferences in 
Southern Asia, the Robert Morrison Centennial Conference 
at Shanghai, the Japan and Korea Conferences, and to serve 
as one of the commissioners of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in the organization of the Japan Methodist Church, 
at Aoyama, Tokyo, I sailed from New York November 6, 
1906, on the good ship Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, of the 
North German Lloyd line. 

At 2 p. m., November 12, our ship halted at Cherbourg, 
France, where Paris passengers went ashore, among whom 
were the members of our party. The trip by rail across 
France by way of Paris to Marseilles was full of interest. 
Most of the way the country is quite level and in a high 
state of cultivation. Certainly, the French are not slovenly 
farmers. Very few barns were seen, but stacks of un¬ 
thrashed sheaves were numerous and constantly in view. 
There are no farmhouses in the open country, as in America, 
but villages and hamlets are always in the range of one’s 
vision. France has the appearance of a carefully cultivated, 
fertile, prosperous country. 

November 16 our party took passage at Marseilles on 
the steamer China, on her way from London to Sidney. 
Here we overtook Bishop FitzGerald and family, who had 
preceded our party by two weeks by way of Montreal and 
had gone on board the China at Liverpool. 

228 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


229 


Suez Canal 

November 20, 1906, our ship entered the Suez Canal and 
anchored opposite Port Said, a city built upon the sands 
of the desert, where not a spear of grass grows or a sign of 
vegetation appears, except a few trees that have been planted 
along the streets and are kept alive by generous supplies of 
fertilizers and fresh water. The population, estimated at 
about forty thousand, is largely Arab in blood and Moham¬ 
medan in religion. 

The Suez Canal is ninety-seven miles long. The highest 
speed allowed to ships is six miles an hour. Nearly four 
thousand ships pass through its waters annually. The Suez 
Canal and the Panama Canal rank with the greatest works 
of man. A monument to DeLesseps, the builder of the 
former, stands at Port Said, and some day a monument to 
Goethals will stand at Panama. 

At Port Said our party was joined by Dr. Charles Park- 
hurst, editor of Zion’s Herald, and Mrs. Parkhurst and 
others who had visited Cairo, all on their way to the India 
Jubilee, either as visitors or to engage in missionary work. 

Red Sea 

On November 21 we sailed from Port Said into the Red 
Sea, a body of water twelve hundred miles long and two 
hundred miles wide at the widest point. Why the sea is 
called “Red” no one knows. Its waters are as blue as the 
Mediterranean. Not a green thing can be seen on either 
shore. There are mountains on both sides having the ap¬ 
pearance of baked clay. There is not a sign of life, either 
animal or vegetable, to be seen. 

Ceylon 

December 1 the China anchored in the harbor of 


230 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Colombo, the capital of Ceylon, a city with a population of 
one hundred and fifty thousand. Ceylon is a crown colony 
of Great Britain. The principal races are Singhalese, 
Kandyans, Tamils, Moormen, and Veddas, the total popula¬ 
tion being estimated at something over three million. Budd¬ 
hism and Hinduism are the prevailing religions. Here the 
English Wesleyans have been doing missionary work for 
many years, but have been only moderately successful. 

In company with Bishop FitzGerald I visited a Buddhist 
and a Hindu temple. The former was less filthy than the 
latter, but both are symbolic of the religions they represent 
—religions that are destitute of uplifting power. Mingling 
among the people, I was reminded of the lines: 

What though the spicy breezes 
Blow soft o’er Ceylon’s isle; 

And every prospect pleases, 

And only man is vile? 

In vain with lavish kindness 
The gifts of God are strown; 

The heathen in his blindness 
Bows down to wood and stone. 

Crossing the Palk Strait, we landed at Tuticorin, the 
extreme southern point of the Indian peninsula, where we 
were greeted by a company of fifty natives, carrying a large 
number of garlands, which they hung about our necks. One 
of the number read an appeal in faultless English, imploring 
me to secure to them admission to the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. They had withdrawn from the Church of Eng¬ 
land because of what they declared were superstitious and 
Romanizing ceremonies in that body. They said they 
desired a communion more simple and more deeply spiritual. 
They did not ask to be aided with missionary money, but 
that they might be provided with a native pastor, whom they 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


231 


would support. Since that time a Methodist Episcopal 
Church has been organized and there is a membership of 
over three thousand in the town and adjacent country. 

Reception at Madras 

Nothing that I could write would so fittingly describe 
the reception accorded to the visitors at Madras as that given 
in Zion’s Herald, written by the editor, Dr. Charles Park- 
hurst : 

Early Tuesday morning, December 4, Mrs. William Butler, in excel¬ 
lent health, with her daughter and son reached Madras on the same 
train with Bishop Oldham. Notwithstanding the early hour, a number 
of people, headed by Miss Grace Stephens, came to meet them. As 
soon as Mrs. Butler alighted from the train Miss Stephens threw over 
the shoulders of the venerable woman a beautiful garland of artificial 
flowers, made with pith, pink and gold in color. As the carriages 
arrived at the Girls’ Orphanage the children were drawn up on either 
side of the drive to shout and sing their hearty welcome. On leaving 
the carriage two garlands of natural flowers were placed on Mrs. 
Butler’s neck, and two each on Miss Clementina and Dr. John Butler. 
The girls and women pressed about, that they might address all kinds 
of endearing terms to this noble mother of missions. Many, in addition 
to the usual Oriental salutation, pressed her hands to their lips, and 
we saw one converted high-caste woman kiss her foot before Mrs. 
Butler could prevent it. Hundreds of girls gathered under the porch 
and in front of the house and finally began to sing a hymn written by 
one of the missionaries for this occasion. The music was native and 
not unlike some of the songs of our colored people in the South. After 
a while seven Bible women not on duty at the moment, came to see 
“Mama,” as they called her who fifty years ago had helped to found 
in this country the church which had sought them out and given them 
the commission to seek others of their own unhappy sisters. No pen 
can adequately describe the scene. It was touching in the extreme and 
doubtless compensated Mrs. Butler for many a hardship and trial in 
the early days. The reception kept up from early morn till late at 
night, so that they almost literally sang all night and played all day. . . . 


The Madras Publishing House 

The Madras Publishing House was doing a good work, 


232 


THE STONE OF HELP 


and since the Jubilee year has under the supervision of the 
Rev. A. E. Ogg made steady progress. In 1912 a new build¬ 
ing was completed and paid for at a cost of $4,000, and im¬ 
portant additions were made to the machinery, costing 
$1,671. “The amount of religious printing done (1912) 
was 580,560 copies; 11,760,510 pages and 66,584 Bibles 
and portions were bound.” The house has a “staff of 250 
employees, with six cylinder machines, ten platen machines, 
and 16,500 square feet of floor space.” They do “stamp¬ 
ing, copper-plate printing, embossing, photo-engraving in 
line and half-tone, electrotyping, type-casting, book-binding, 
and general printing in five languages. In the part of 
India of which Madras is the center there are 20,000,000 
Tamils, 15,000,000 Telagus, and 10,000,000 Kanarese; 
among whom Christian literature is being disseminated.” 
The year 1913 was the “best in all its history,” having 
“turned out a vast amount of literature and done extensive 
printing in several languages.” 


CHAPTER XXIX 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 
(continued) 

Madras to Bareilly 

Leaving Madras, a night by rail brought us to Bowring- 
pet, and from thence by automobile to Kolar, a distance of 
eleven miles, where another hearty welcome awaited us, and 
again there were garlands and addresses. The natives lined 
the road for a considerable distance, and showered us with 
flowers. The principal address of welcome was delivered 
in our Industrial Mission Hall, by the deputy commissioner 
of the province, a Mohammedan. He paid a glowing tribute 
to the industrial work under the charge of the Rev. W. H. 
Hollister, and the school under the supervision of Miss 
Fannie F. Fisher, of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary 
Society. The industrial plant consisted of five hundred acres 
of land, only a small part of which was under cultivation, 
and a machine and cabinet building in which the mechanical 
industries were carried forward. Very creditable work was 
being done in the manufacture of agricultural implements, 
household furniture, etc. A twelve-horse power engine 
furnished power to run the machinery. The total number 
of boys under instruction was one hundred and ten, sixty 
of whom were employed in the shops, ten in the masonry 
industry, and forty on the farm. Here is also a deaconess 
home, at the main entrance of which is the following in¬ 
scription: “In memory of William A. Gamble, Cincinnati, 

233 


2 34 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Ohio, U. S. A., who did justly, loved mercy, and walked 
humbly before his God. Being dead yet he speaketh. Born 
September i, 1845. Died May 21, 1897.” 

The growth of the institution since 1906 has been steady, 
and many boys are becoming skilled workmen in the various 
industries carried forward. The industrio-educational phase 
of the work has been well developed, and many of the boys 
in the orphanage and school are supported by this depart¬ 
ment. 

Bangalore 

Resuming our journey by automobile, our party, con¬ 
sisting of Bishop FitzGerald and daughter, Bishop Oldham 
and the writer, was carried forty-one miles, at a speed of 
twenty miles an hour, over a road built by the British gov¬ 
ernment, almost as level as a floor and arched much of the 
way by splendid banyan trees, to Bangalore. At intervals 
of two or three miles there were colonies of monkeys, num¬ 
bering from a dozen to twenty or thirty, which upon our 
approach scampered up the trees, and when securely perched 
scolded us vehemently for trespassing upon their preserves. 

The object of our visit to Bangalore was to lay the 
corner stone of an extension to our English church. Here 
there were also a native church, a boys’ school, for which a 
dormitory has since been erected, and girls’ school of the 
Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society. 

Belgaum 

Leaving Bishop FitzGerald and his daughter at Banga¬ 
lore, Bishop Oldham and the writer continued by rail to 
Belgaum, which is three hundred and eighty miles distant, 
and one of our most important mission centers. The 
property, consisting of a fine high school building of stone, 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


235 


an excellent church edifice for English-speaking people, a 
chapel for native services, and several other valuable build¬ 
ings, was handed over to us in 1903, by the London Mis¬ 
sionary Society, free from all incumbrance. Belgaum has 
a population of about one hundred thousand, and is the 
chief city of a district containing one million people who 
speak the Kanarese and Marathi languages. A dormitory 
for boys has since been erected at a cost of $2,000, a special 
gift from a generous American layman. The high school 
in 1913 reached an enrollment of four hundred and seven¬ 
teen. “It is in a flourishing condition and doing excellent 
work. The Rev. E. L. King is the principal; religious in¬ 
struction is compulsory. Aside from the principal’s salary, 
this school is entirely self-supporting. The other Anglo- 
vernacular school is carried on in a town twenty miles from 
Belgaum. It is under the supervision of the principal of 
the high school and is taught by a Christian teacher. The 
entire expense of the school is provided by the people of 
the town. The Scriptures are regularly taught. The other 
two boys’ schools are of the primary grade, and are finan¬ 
cially insufficiently provided for. One of them with about 
two hundred boys will soon have to be closed for lack of 
funds. Of the girls’ schools one is a Christian boarding 
school, with fifty-two boarders. This school is well equipped 
and well taught. The four remaining schools are of the 
primary grade and are well provided for and are doing good 
work. Thirty-five per cent of all the pupils in the schools 
of the district are Christians.” 


South India Conference 

The South India Conference was held in the city of 
Hyderabad, beginning December 12. Bishops FitzGerald 


THE STONE OF HELP 


236 

and Thoburn presided; Bishops Oldham and Robinson were 
also present. Hyderabad is the capital of an independent 
Mohammedan state of the same name, and is usually desig¬ 
nated as Nizam’s Dominions. Although said to be “inde¬ 
pendent,” the British government has a representative at 
court who must be consulted regarding all important ques¬ 
tions. The capital city has a population of about five hun¬ 
dred thousand, and the population of the state is eleven 
million five hundred and thirty-seven thousand. It is the 
“Premier Feudatory State” of India, and contains eighty- 
two thousand square miles. The largest military station in 
India is located at Secunderabad, six miles northeast of the 
capital. Seven miles west of the capital is Golconda, 
formerly the capital of the state, and once famous for its 
trade in diamonds. The walled city is held for the exclusive 
occupancy of Mohammedans. No Christian church can be 
erected, no Christian institutions founded within its bounds. 
At least one good thing can be said about this walled city— 
the sale of intoxicating liquors is prohibited. 

By special invitation of the Young Men’s Debating Club 
at Hyderabad, a Mohammedan organization, the writer de¬ 
livered an address on “Temperance from the American 
Viewpoint,” in which the prohibition principle was advo¬ 
cated and enthusiastically received. The Conference was 
held in our commodious English church, located outside the 
city walls, and entertainment was provided on the com¬ 
munity plan, each member and visitor contributing a pro 
rata amount. The usual Annual Conference business was 
transacted in the English language. It was not considered 
necessary to translate the proceedings into either of the 
vernaculars represented, as most of the Conference mem¬ 
bers understood English. Two enthusiastic jubilee services 
were held, one in the vernacular and the other in English. 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


237 


Bombay 

On December 15, 1906, we arrived at Bombay, which has 
a population of one million, and is the second city in size in 
the British empire, London alone being greater. Here, in 
1870, William Taylor opened his India evangelistic cam¬ 
paign, which resulted in the organization of English-speak¬ 
ing Methodist Episcopal churches in Bombay, Poona, Luck¬ 
now, Cawnpore, Madras, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and 
Calcutta. From all these centers our native work had 
spread into the surrounding territory, making it necessary 
to extend our work over the entire Indian peninsula. In 
this great city we owned three houses of worship. Grant 
Road Church, which had been used by both English-speak¬ 
ing and native congregations, is now occupied exclusively by 
natives, and the services are held in at least three different 
languages—Marathi, Gujarathi, and Hindustani; possibly 
also in Tamil. Bowen Church had a membership of one 
hundred and twenty, and a congregation filling the audi¬ 
torium, the seating capacity of which is two hundred and 
fifty. 

The auditorium of the William Taylor Memorial Church 
was occupied for the first time on Sunday, December 16, 
1906. The service was in charge of Bishop Foss, who 
made a brief introductory address on the life and labors of 
William Taylor. This was followed by a sermon by the 
writer. The congregation filled the auditorium, which 
accommodates over three hundred people. 

Bombay deserves more than a passing notice. Rudyard 
Kipling gave it the title “Bombay the beautiful,” and in 
some respects the title is well bestowed. It has splendid 
public buildings. The Victoria Terminus, the great railroad 
station, probably has no equal in any country. The style of 
architecture is Italian Gothic, and has a frontage of fifteen 


238 


THE STONE OF HELP 


hundred feet on Hornley Road. There are spacious re¬ 
freshment rooms and handsome offices, with tessellated 
floors. Massive marble pillars support the roof and entrance 
doorway. A fine statue of the late Queen-Empress Vic¬ 
toria stands in front of the building, one of many seen in 
different parts of India. 

Here are the “Towers of Silence,” where the Parsees, 
the followers of Zoroaster, of whom there are said to be 
one hundred thousand in the city, dispose of their dead. 
They are well to do and usually speak English. There are 
five of these towers, the largest of which is two hundred 
and seventy-six feet in circumference, all surrounded by 
walls twenty-five feet high. Only corpse-bearers are per¬ 
mitted to enter the towers. The dead bodies are placed in 
certain prescribed positions and are quickly devoured by 
flocks of vultures that perch upon the walls and trees sur¬ 
rounding the towers. The bones, when stripped of flesh, 
are cast into a well, where they rot. 

About six miles by boat from the city is the island of 
Elephanta, upon which the Elephanta caves are situated. 
The Great Cave contains a bust of Shiv, which is also seen 
in all the caves, and personates Brahma, who is extrava¬ 
gantly adorned. The face has a severe expression, which 
seems to break into a smile as he looks upon a cobra which 
winds around his arm. These caves are said to have existed 
since the eighth century. 

Bombay Conference 

On December 18, 1906, the Bombay Conference met at 
Baroda under the joint presidency of Bishops FitzGerald 
and J. E. Robinson. Baroda is the capital of the native 
state bearing the same name, with a population including the 
cantonment of about one hundred and twenty thousand and 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


239 


is about one hundred and forty-eight miles north of Bom¬ 
bay. Here the palace of the gaekwar is located. Our com¬ 
pound is only a short distance from the palace grounds and 
is finely situated. Upon it are our missionary residences, 
orphanages, schools, and one of the best native churches in 
India. 

During the session of the Conference a party of women 
were welcomed to an audience with the queen, while the 
men were received by the gaekwar. Bishop Foss, who with 
Mrs. Foss was a visitor to all the India Conferences, was 
one of the party. 

The day following the reception at the palace, his High¬ 
ness visited our compound. Both occasions are very appro¬ 
priately described by Bishop Foss in a letter to the Western 
Christian Advocate: 

At Baroda, the gaekwar (or king) of that native state, who, during 
the past year, with his queen made an extensive tour through America 
from which he had been back only three weeks, showed us a distin¬ 
guished attention. By previous arrangement, the ladies of our party 
called upon the maharani (or queen) and were shown through the 
rooms of the palace, which is the most splendid in India and which is 
excelled in architectural beauty and fine adornment by very few 
palaces in Europe. The next day the four bishops present, with some 
of the visitors and missionaries, were received by the king and prince 
at the palace, and on the day following, he, with his chief officers of 
state and a considerable number of the foremost citizens of Baroda, 
attended a garden party arranged by our missionary ladies, spent a 
considerable time in free conversation with us all, and partook of 
refreshments with us. Bishop Robinson made a brief address to the 
gaekwar, most felicitously referring to his good will to our work; 
which reference he, in a brief reply, most cordially accepted, assuring 
us of his respect and favor. Among those present were the prime 
minister, one of the judges of the High Court of Baroda, and the 
assistant English resident. 

During the session of the Conference, in company with 
the Rev. L. E. Linzell, superintendent of the Baroda Or- 


240 


THE STONE OF HELP 


phanage, I made a visit to a country district, twenty miles 
distant, to obtain a practical knowledge of village work 
among the common people. A gig was secured at the rail¬ 
road station, by which we journeyed three miles to a village 
of about one thousand people, where we had a church 
organization and school. We reached the village at about 
sunrise and were met by our pastor-teacher, who conducted 
us to the mud hut which was used for church and school 
purposes. The news of our arrival spread rapidly among 
the villagers and in a few minutes a congregation of about 
one hundred was assembled. They sat upon the ground, 
under the narrow shed in front of the mud hut and in 
the street. On the rim of the congregation a cow was 
tethered, and did not seem to be alarmed at the proximity 
of the people or the singing, in which all engaged lustily 
and with a devotional spirit. Brother Linzell, who was 
accustomed to village work, read the parable of the pounds 
and made comments. I followed and was interpreted by the 
pastor-teacher. A mile further we came to another village 
of higher grade, where another service was held with a 
larger attendance. These were sample services of the kind 
being held daily in hundreds of villages by our missionaries 
and native workers. 

On Saturday of Conference week about one hundred took 
train to attend a Christian mass meeting at Bhalaj, a village 
forty miles distant from Baroda. The expense was small, 
as the railroad fare for the round trip in third-class cars 
was only twenty-four cents. The distance from the railroad 
station to the site of the mass meeting was about one mile. 
The conveyances were camels and bullock carts. Here I 
had my first (and last I am glad to say) experience in 
camel-back riding. The swing of a camel, when on his 
best gait, must be experienced to be appreciated. On the 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


241 


return trip I concluded to try a cart, which could hardly be 
said to be an improvement on the camel. The body was 
made of wicker, about eight or nine feet long, two feet 
high, and two and a half feet wide. No springs, but straw 
was supplied to break the force of jolts. Four people were 
assigned to each cart. The driver was perched on the yoke 
between the oxen, which were driven on a trot. These carts 
are often used by the missionaries when itinerating among 
the villages. There was fun in the ride of a mile, but to 
ride in one day after day as the missionaries do would 
become not only monotonous but a weariness to the flesh. 
The mass meeting was held in the open. A platform of 
stone and mortar had been constructed, covered with canvas, 
upon which there were seats for the accommodation of 
speakers and visitors. Fifteen hundred people were seated 
on the ground in front of the platform—men, women, and 
children—some of whom had walked fifteen miles. Ad¬ 
dresses were made by Bishop FitzGerald, Drs. Butler and 
Goucher, and the writer, and fifty people were baptized. 

After the service “tiffin,” provided by a native Christian, 
was served. The food was boiled rice and curry, which was 
eaten with the fingers, after native style, mother earth being 
the table. Following the rice and curry, rice pudding and 
tea were served in the same primitive fashion. 

On the return trip to Baroda, as the train passed through 
a village named Wisard, a preacher stood up in the car 
and through a megaphone told the following awful story: 
“At this village, within a year one of the most brutal and 
hideous occurrences that Hinduism has exhibited since mis¬ 
sionaries came to this land took place. The Hindu priest 
here dug a deep well, filled it at the bottom with wood, and 
poured oil on the wood. He had told his people that if 
they would obtain glory they must leap into the burning 


242 


THE STONE OF HELP 


well. The day was fixed for the event. He had assured 
them that the fire would not burn them. The fire was 
lighted and he exhorted his devotees to jump in and ‘obtain 
the desired glory.’ First three men leaped in, then some 
women, one a mother with a babe in her arms, who entreated 
the husband and father to accompany her. Finally she gave 
the babe to the father and leaped in. Then the priest 
jumped in, with three more men, ten in all; but the last 
three men shrieked that they were burning, and begged to 
be pulled out. This was done, but it was too late to save 
them; they died suffering horribly from their burns.” 

Conference Sunday 

The day opened with a love feast at 8130 a. m. The 
question is often asked, “Do these Indian people come into 
possession of a genuine Christian experience?” The best 
answer may be given in the experiences of these people as 
they came from their own lips. Here are a few testimonies 
that were reported by a native stenographer and translated 
into English: 

“I thank God that the Holy Spirit is directing me in my 
life.” 

“I thank God for his blessing upon me that I am able 
to do my work; and I am glad to testify that when I find 
any difficulty, I pray and feel that my prayers are all an¬ 
swered and therefore my heart rejoiceth in me.” 

“I thank God for the privilege of seeing the brethren and 
sisters from America and the Indian brethren and sisters 
here. When we realize that the friends in America have 
so much love for us that they send money our hearts are 
filled with joy and to see that God has done so much here.” 

“I this morning thank God for the privilege of testifying 
that he abides in me.” 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


243 

“I am trying to live a Christian life, and am happy that 
the Lord is helping me in doing my work.” 

“I thank God that I have received salvation, because he 
is in me and lives in me.” 

“I was sorry not to be present at the District Conference 
this year, but I am glad to be here at this time when there 
are even more than there were then. Although it is not 
in the Gujarat District, yet the Lord is blessing our work in 
Kathiawad. And I ask the European and Indian brethren 
to pray for our work there.” 

“A short time ago I was a Brahman and was worshiping 
false gods, but now I am happy to be able to testify that 
through the gospel of Jesus Christ, God has saved me from 
my sins. And I hope he will help me in future.” 

“I have full faith in Christ that he is mine.” 

“I feel happy that Christ is in me.” 

“Christ has saved me from my sins.” 

“I trust he will give me more strength to do his will and 
I thank him that he has saved me.” 

“I received salvation for which I thank God.” 

“I thank God that he has made me his servant and has 
given me his salvation.” 

“I thank God that he has saved me.” 

“I thank God that I have received the Lord in my heart.” 

“I thank God that the Holy Spirit is working in me.” 

“I had been seriously ill, but I was restored to health, 
for which I thank God and am happy that he has given me 
strength to do his work.” 

“I thank God that he has saved me from the power of 
Satan and now I am very happy in him.” 

“I thank God for his blessing on me. My heart is filled 
with joy and I take this opportunity for thanking him, and 
I am glad to say that I live in him.” 


244 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Nadi ad 

On the way from Baroda to Bareilly we stopped at 
Nadiad, where we have an industrial school and orphanage, 
situated on a six-acre lot, and composed of dormitory, work 
shops, hospital for inmates, bungalow residence for the 
superintendent, and a substantial, sightly brick church 
edifice that will accommodate one thousand people. A 
variety of industries were carried forward—carpentry, 
blacksmithing, machinery manufacture, carving, weaving, 
pattern-making, and drawing. Since 1906 the institution 
has made very satisfactory progress and is practically self- 
supporting. 

Ajmere 

At Ajmere, a city with a population of about seventy-five 
thousand, over six hundred miles northeast of Bombay, we 
were greeted by one thousand people, consisting of boys 
and girls from our schools and adults, assembled in a hall, 
where reports were given by missionaries and addresses 
were made by visitors. At that time a great revival was 
in progress in the territory of which Ajmere is the center 
and continues to the present time. 

Delhi 

This is one of the great cities of North India. At the time 
of our visit the population was approximately two hundred 
thousand, but having been made the capital of the Indian 
empire December, 1911, by King-Emperor George V, the 
population has rapidly increased. 

Delhi has had a tragical history. Between 1198 and 
1857, when it was retaken from the Sepoy mutineers by the 
British, it was captured and sacked by Mohammedans eight 
or nine times. 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


245 


Here is the palace built by Aurangzede in 1640. It 
contains a hall, called the House of Commons, and another 
designated as the House of Lords. The latter is gorgeously 
decorated with inlaid figures. The building is of solid 
marble from floor to dome, which is supported by thirty- 
two square marble columns. Here stands the marble plat¬ 
form, about ten feet square and four feet high, upon which 
once rested the celebrated Peacock throne. In several rooms 
there are marble baths, built into the marble floors. In 
connection with the palace is the Pearl Mosque, upon which 
are twenty-one minarets, which are in view from the court. 
Upon entering the hall of the mosque our party joined in 
singing, “All hail the power of Jesus’ name.” The entire 
building is unoccupied, and is maintained by the British 
authorities as an architectural specimen of the Moslem- 
Mogul period. 

In another part of the city stands the great mosque, 
Jumma Musjia, the largest in India. The open court 
is reached from the street by thirty-one stone steps, and 
the tallest minaret by one hundred and seventy steps addi¬ 
tional, making a total of two hundred and one. With 
several others, I ascended the tallest of these, from which 
a fine view of the city and surrounding country was obtained 
which compensated for the laborious climb. 


CHAPTER XXX 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 
(continued) 

The India Jubilee 

Bareilly has a population of about one hundred and 
thirty thousand, and its history goes back to the eighth 
century. Here, in 1856, Dr. William Butler planted our 
Indian Mission, and here the Jubilee was celebrated upon 
the spacious grounds belonging to the Missionary Society 
and the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society. The space 
was ample and generous provision was made for the enter¬ 
tainment of both native and foreign guests. 

A great canvas tent had been pitched, or, rather, several 
tents had been so joined together as to constitute a pavilion 
accommodating about twenty-five hundred. Numerous 
smaller tents had been set up to serve as places for social 
meetings, receptions, or in which to eat or sleep. The 
bungalows, residences of the missionaries, were thrown open 
for the accommodation of visitors from America, represen¬ 
tatives of the Conferences of Southern Asia, and fraternal 
visitors from missions of other denominations. These visi¬ 
tors numbered about two hundred and fifty. 

First Day 

The opening service was held December 28, 1906, at 
4 p. m., under the presidency of Bishop Frank W. Warne, 
246 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


247 


the congregation fairly filling the great pavilion. The most 
significant feature of this service was the address of wel¬ 
come delivered by M. Akbar Ali, the Mohammedan Secre¬ 
tary of the Municipal and District Board, which was cordial 
and hearty. 

Other addresses of welcome were made by Bishop F. W. 
Warne, the Rev. Samuel Knowles, the Rev. P. M. Buck, 
and the Rev. William Peters, and responses from visitors 
were given. The welcome given to the venerable Mrs. But¬ 
ler, who, at the age of eighty-seven, made the long journey 
from America to Bareilly to look once more upon the scene 
of the labors and perils of the early part of the previous half 
century, was at once fitting and inspiring. The vast audience 
rose to its feet and joined in singing, “Glory, glory, Halle¬ 
lujah! Our God is marching on!” Many pushed forward 
to grasp the hand of the venerable saint, and to express their 
joy at the privilege of welcoming her to Bareilly. It was 
an ovation worthy of a queen, extended to one who was 
more than a queen—a mother in our Methodist Israel. 

Second Day 

The services of the second day continued from early 
morning to late evening, and consisted of devotional exer¬ 
cises, addresses by Bishop Foss and the writer, and the 
“stories” of North India, South India, Bengal, Northwest 
India, and Bombay Conferences. Marvelous stories they 
were, more thrilling than romance. They were published in 
a volume containing a full account of the Jubilee and have 
been eagerly read by all who are interested in world-wide 
evangelism. In the late afternoon the workers and friends 
of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society held an inter¬ 
esting meeting at which papers were read and addresses 


248 


THE STONE OF HELP 


made on missionary topics. Mrs. Bishop Parker called 
the roll of the heroines who had fallen in battle during the 
half-century then closing. 


Third Day 

The third day was the Sabbath, and one that will not be 
forgotten by those who were privileged to enjoy it at 
Bareilly. The exercises opened with a devotional service 
at 8 a. m., which was followed a half hour later by a love 
feast, continuing until 10:30 a. m. The pavilion was 
packed to its limit, the natives sitting on coarse matting 
spread on the ground, and the foreigners on seats specially 
provided for them. 

From the moment when testimonies were requested no 
time was lost. It was not necessary for Dr. Thomas S. 
Johnson, the veteran missionary, who presided, to exhort 
the people to be prompt. Dozens sprang to their feet at 
once, eager for an opportunity to give their testimonies, 
several sometimes speaking at the same moment. And such 
testimonies as they were! A veteran Baptist missionary sat 
beside me and told me what the people were saying. I have 
enjoyed many love feasts in America in pastoral charges, 
at Quarterly Meetings, and Annual Conferences, but I never 
heard more definite or more deeply spiritual experiences 
than those which I heard at the Jubilee love feast. Indian 
Christians know the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal, presents 
and all-sufficient Saviour. Of this no one believing in 
experimental religion could be in doubt. Then the singing 
—how it swept in great waves over the vast multitude, 
breaking out now in one place and now in another, and taken 
up by many, often accompanied by the clapping of hands 
both to keep time and to express joy! 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


249 


Fourth Day 

This was a wonderful day. Jubilee services were in 
session, with brief intervals, beginning at eight o’clock in 
the morning and continuing until late evening. A baptismal 
service took place at 5 p. m. No effort had been made to 
have a large number baptized at this Jubilee, and yet there 
were five hundred and twenty-three baptisms. The candi¬ 
dates had been carefully prepared for the ordinance by many 
months of instruction on the part of the missionaries and 
native pastors. They answered the questions and took the 
baptismal vow with a promptness and emphasis that indi¬ 
cated their decision to break away from idolatry. 

As conclusive proof of their sincerity, all who had not 
previously done so, at this time allowed the “chutia” (a tuft 
of hair on the crown of the head) to be clipped in public. 
The “chutia” is a badge of Hinduism, and when removed 
is supposed to forever separate the convert from idol wor¬ 
ship, and in many instances also from family and friends. 

The scene can never be effaced from one’s memory. The 
candidates in twelve groups were seated on pieces of mat¬ 
ting. The ordinance was administered by visiting ministers, 
each being attended by a missionary who announced the 
names of the candidates. It was the writer’s privilege to 
baptize forty-four, about one twelfth of the total number. 
O that the whole church in America might have witnessed 
that scene! As a result what a wave of missionary enthu¬ 
siasm would have swept through all its borders, and what 
treasure would have been poured out for the sending of 
reenforcements to assist the men and women in India, who 
were and are still breaking beneath their burdens! Bishop 
Warne assured me that had an effort been made, there would 
have been three thousand for baptism instead of five hundred 
and twenty-three. 


250 


THE STONE OF HELP 


At the close of this marvelous service the late Dr. William 
A. Mansell, who spoke Hindustani as though it were his 
mother tongue, turned to the hundreds of Hindus and Mo¬ 
hammedans who surrounded the pavilion and exhorted them 
with great power to accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour. 
While he was speaking a Hindu of considerable prominence 
interrupted him by saying in a loud voice, ‘The whole 
country is turning Christian.” 

This was the last day of the old year and two watch-night 
services were held, one in the Methodist Episcopal Church 
for English-speaking people, and the other in the large 
pavilion for Indian people. 

Fifth Day 

January i, 1907, will always be memorable in India as the 
last day of this great Jubilee. The forenoon was devoted 
to a representation of the school work in all its departments. 

In the afternoon a procession was formed which marched 
around the grounds, consisting of pupils from the boys’ and 
girls’ schools, Epworth League members, the Indian church 
members, and the Jubilee visitors. 

At 8 p. m. a closing service was held in the pavilion, 
several brief addresses were made, and thus India Meth¬ 
odism’s great Jubilee passed into history. 


CHAPTER XXXI 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 
(continued) 

The North India Conference 

The North India Conference, organized by Bishop Ed¬ 
ward Thomson, in Lucknow, December 8, 1864, held its 
thirty-fourth annual session in Bareilly, January 3 to 7, 
1907, under the presidency of Bishops FitzGerald and 
Warne. The Conference had ninety-seven members and 
nine probationers, making a total of one hundred and six. 
The Indian members could carry any measure upon which 
they might unite in opposition to the American contingent, 
but not in a single instance was there a line drawn between 
the native and foreign members. 

A considerable number of the Indian preachers under¬ 
stand English, and several of them speak it correctly and 
fluently. One of the best interpreters in the Conference was 
a young man who was graduated from the Allahabad Uni¬ 
versity, a government institution. During the session he 
was admitted into full membership and ordained a deacon. 
A number of the Conference members were graduates of 
Reid Christian College at Lucknow and of Bareilly Theo¬ 
logical Seminary. By means of government institutions 
and our own schools we are raising up a well-educated min¬ 
istry in all parts of Southern Asia, and are thus preparing 
the way for a self-governing and self-supporting church. 

251 


252 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Educational Institutions 

Our leading educational institutions within the bounds of 
the North India Conference are Reid Christian College for 
men and Isabella Thoburn College for women, both 
at Lucknow, the former having at that time an enrollment 
of five hundred and sixty-eight students and the latter one 
hundred and eighty-five; and the Theological School at 
Bareilly, which had an enrollment of seventy-seven students 
in the seminary proper and forty-nine in the women’s de¬ 
partment, making a total of one hundred and twenty-six. 
An interesting feature of this seminary is that it provides 
a course of study for the wives of men who are preparing 
for the Christian ministry. There is also the Bishop Parker 
Memorial High School at Moradabad, which reported an 
enrollment of three hundred and eighty boys, one hundred 
and thirty of whom were Christians. At Naini Tal we 
have the Philander Smith College for English students, and 
throughout the Conference territory a large number of 
primary schools preparing boys and girls for institutions of 
higher grade. 

First Baptism 

About three miles from Bareilly, in the midst of a splendid 
garden of flowers, plants and tropical trees, stands a large 
Oriental bungalow, where, in 1859, the first baptism in our 
Indian Mission occurred. The bungalow was erected by a 
wealthy Hindu, who was a leader in the great mutiny that 
broke out in 1857. What became of this rebel leader I did 
not ascertain, but his valuable estate was confiscated by the 
British government. Upon the reopening of the Methodist 
Mission at Bareilly, in 1859, the bungalow was rented and 
for about a year was occupied by Dr. James L. Humphrey 
and wife, then in charge of the work. One day, while he 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


253 


was preaching in a bazaar in Bareilly, Dr. Humphrey’s at¬ 
tention was attracted to a young Mohammedan, who seemed 
to be intensely interested. At the close of the service the 
missionary approached him and requested him to call at 
the bungalow for a private interview. The Mohammedan 
accepted the invitation and a few weeks later he acknowl¬ 
edged Christ as his Saviour and was baptized. 

In Conference week a party of twelve, including Dr. 
Humphrey, visited the scene of this first baptism. The 
bungalow had become the property of a wealthy Hindu, who 
occupied it as a residence during a part of the year, but at 
the time of our visit was absent. The building was thrown 
open and we were permitted to roam at will through its 
spacious rooms. Entering the large drawing room, our 
party gathered around Dr. Humphrey, who stood on the 
spot where he had administered the rite of baptism and 
told the story as outlined above. It was indeed noteworthy 
that the minister who performed the first baptismal cere¬ 
mony forty-seven years previously was present to narrate 
this remarkable bit of history. The church that had but one 
member in all Southern Asia at the time that ceremony was 
performed at the end of fifty years numbered one hundred 
and ninety thousand, including baptized children. The 
name of the one member referred to was Zahur U 1 Haqq, 
who afterward became a minister and one of the charter 
members of the North India Conference. 

Historical Development 

The Indian Witness of February 12, 1914, gives the 
following historic resume of the past half century: 

Fifty years is but a short time in the history of India, a land which 
at the time of an Aryan invasion two thousand years before Christ, was 
inhabited by a people who were “Dwellers in cities, rich in gold, and 


254 


THE STONE OF HELP 


whose beautiful women were decorated with gold and jewels.” Never¬ 
theless, there have in this short period been many hopeful changes. 
Our mission was organized in mutiny times; after the mutiny the 
call of India was heard throughout the world, and of eighty-two 
American and British missionary societies, now at work in India, only 
nineteen began before the mutiny. Then in India there was only 
a very small Christian community, now there is a Protestant Indian 
Christian community of 1,617,000 souls; then there were only a few 
missionaries, now there are 5,200 and associated with them 34,500 
Indian workers. Last year 1,000,000 Scripture portions were circulated 
in over 60 different languages. Our church then reported a total 
Indian Christian community of only 264, but now in the North India 
Conference alone there is a Christian community of 77,277. At our last 
Central Conference we had a community of over 260,000, and this year 
we will have about 40,000 baptisms, and by next Central Conference will 
have a Christian community way beyond 300,000, possibly more, even 
near 400,000. There are now many thousands turning away from their 
old faith and superstitions and looking to us to receive them into the 
Christian fold. 


CHAPTER XXXII 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 
(continued) 

Five Interesting Places 

Naini Tal. The Himalaya Mountains extend along the 
northern border of Hindustan, rising from the plain of the 
Ganges. On the southern side of the crest of this vast 
range, about seventy-five miles in a northerly direction from 
Bareilly and seven thousand feet above the plain, is the 
village of Naini Tal, a summer resort for English people. 
Between the plain and the base of the Himalayas there is 
a “jungle about twenty miles wide, reeking with malaria 
and the haunt of tigers and elephants.” This is the jungle 
Dr. William Butler and family crossed, when making their 
flight from Bareilly upon the outbreak of the mutiny in 
May, 1857, an d which he vividly describes in The Land of 
the Veda. 

On our way from Bareilly to Naini Tal our party crossed 
this danger zone on a railroad train, and the ascent from 
the plain was by tongas and dandies, the former pulled by 
ponies and the latter carried by coolies. 

Naini Tal is picturesquely situated among the mountains 
on the west side of a lake having the same name. The 
whole region of which Naini Tal is the center is wildly 
mountainous with lakes and rivers, with “wooded deeps, 
with the mysteries of the forest” which “grips the soul of 
the traveler with abiding interest.” The people who dwell 

255 


THE STONE OF HELP 


256 

in these mountain fastnesses are now just what they have 
been from time immemorial. The revolutions that have so 
frequently swept the plains have not touched them. They 
are the aborigines, but whence they came history does not 
record. The lake is about one mile long and its average 
breadth is less than half a mile. Being nestled among the 
mountains, which protect it from the winds, its waters are 
usually very placid, reflecting in their depths the surround¬ 
ing scenery, like a great mirror. On the west side of the 
lake is the Wellesley Girls’ School of the Woman’s Foreign 
Missionary Society, where our party was delightfully enter¬ 
tained, while on the east side a thousand feet higher is our 
Philander Smith College. Both of these institutions were 
in a flourishing condition, and a recent report says they 
“maintain a high standard of teaching” and are “on a more 
satisfactory basis than at any previous time.” 

During the afternoon of our arrival a heavy wind and 
rain storm swept through the mountains and continued 
during the night, turning to snow toward morning and 
giving us a winter scene which rarely occurs at that eleva¬ 
tion. At noon the next day there came a lull in the storm, 
and as it was our only opportunity to see our Philander 
Smith College, Drs. Neeld, Vaughan, and myself took 
dandies, each carried by four bare-footed coolies, and round¬ 
ing the north end of the lake, started up the mountain. 
When about half the ascent was accomplished the storm 
broke anew, first in a heavy rain, which soon became sleet 
and snow forming slush, which made the ascent increas¬ 
ingly difficult. I wondered what the effect would be upon 
the coolies, who having been drenched with rain, were com¬ 
pelled to walk bare-footed in the slush. To my surprise, 
they made no complaint, but marched right on and landed 
us safely in the college building. After an hour spent in 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


257 


looking through the edifice we returned, the coolies walking 
down the mountain in the slush almost to the level of the 
lake. They received an extra “tip” for their rough experi¬ 
ence, which they richly earned. 

Lucknow. Our party arrived at Lucknow January 12, 
1907, a city at that time of about two hundred and fifty 
thousand, the capital of Oude, a manufacturing center of 
great importance, and upon the whole the most attractive 
city it was my privilege to visit in India. There are numer¬ 
ous public grounds and parks that afford space for recreation 
and rest, so greatly needed in a tropical country. There 
are buildings and monuments that are historic. Here is 
the mausoleum of Imambara, a great hall dating from the 
middle of the last century, and here is the residency in which 
British soldiers and civilians were imprisoned during the 
Sepoy rebellion in 1857. On May 31 every city in Oude 
except Lucknow, had been seized by the rebels. Sir Henry 
Lawrence, who had spent over thirty years in the military 
and civil service of India, and who had been appointed gov¬ 
ernor of the kingdom of Oude, seeing the danger which 
threatened Lucknow, and particularly its English soldiers 
and civilians, gathered all into the residency and adjacent 
building and made every possible preparation for defense by 
collecting provisions, guns, and ammunition, and by con¬ 
structing trenches and stockades. 

Meanwhile the rebel army, fifteen thousand strong, was 
marching against the city. Sir Henry with only six hundred 
and thirty-six men marched out seven miles to resist their 
approach, only to be defeated and driven back. When the 
siege commenced the whole number within the residency, 
including soldiers, civilians, women and children and na¬ 
tives, was two thousand two hundred and forty-two, while 
the besieging force was estimated all the way from thirty 


THE STONE OF HELP 


258 

thousand to one hundred thousand. The hottest season of 
the year was upon them without any facilities by which they 
could secure relief. Often the shells of the rebels crashed 
through the walls of the buildings and exploded, causing 
damage to the residency and death to the inmates. 

On July 4 a shell crashed through the wall of the building, 
entered the room of Sir Henry, and exploded, tearing his 
thigh from his body and inflicting a mortal wound from 
which he died two days later. We entered the room in 
which this brave, loyal Englishman met his fate, with a 
mingled feeling of reverence and awe. There was the 
hole in the wall through which the fatal shell entered. In 
the walls of the edifice the holes made by the death-dealing 
shells were numerous and the damage done by their ex¬ 
plosions was everywhere apparent. The residency remained 
unoccupied, in the condition it was in when the siege ended, 
and so it will remain through the coming years, a silent 
but eloquent witness to as brave a defense as ever was 
made. For one hundred and forty-three days the siege 
continued. Meanwhile the gallant General Havelock and 
his brave army were fighting their way through a hostile 
country. On September 25, 1857, they reached the suburbs 
of Lucknow and late in the afternoon the English soldiers, 
led by General Havelock, fought their way up the street, 
and though some fell at every step, yet nothing could with¬ 
stand the headlong gallantry of the men. What a greeting 
they received from the long-besieged inmates of the resi¬ 
dency ! 

One of the staff described it: “From every pit, trench, 
and battery, from behind the sandbags, piled on shattered 
houses, from every post still held by a few gallant spirits, 
rose cheer on cheer. Even from the hospital many of the 
wounded crawled forth to join the glad shout of welcome 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


259 

to those who had so bravely come to their assistance. It 
was a moment never to be forgotten.” 

There remained of the original garrison when reinforced 
on the 25th day of September, a total of 979 souls, includ¬ 
ing sick and wounded, of whom 577 were Europeans and 
402 natives. 

Lucknow was in 1907, and still remains, our most im¬ 
portant mission center in Southern Asia. Here are our 
Reid Christian College and Isabella Thoburn College for 
women, belonging to the Woman’s Foreign Missionary 
Society, that have no superiors and few equals in India. In 
1913 a new collegiate school building was completed, “one 
of the largest and best appointed in the province”—so says 
the Annual Report. The report further says that “the gov¬ 
ernment most generously made a grant-in-aid toward the 
building, grading and equipment, of Rs. 65,000,” and might 
have appropriately added that a gentleman in America “most 
generously” gave 50,000 rupees for the same purpose, with¬ 
out which the government grant would not have been made 
and the said “Collegiate School Building” could not have 
been erected. This institution was founded by the gener¬ 
osity of the Rev. J. M. Reid, D.D., corresponding secretary 
of the Missionary Society from 1872 to 1888, and very 
appropriately bears his name. The campus is splendidly 
located, and, like Mount Zion of old, is “beautiful for situ¬ 
ation,” and if not the “joy of the whole earth,” is surely the 
joy of our Indian Methodist Episcopal Church. Here is 
our Publishing House, the business of which in 1913 
amounted to 70,000 rupees, showing a “substantial profit,” 
English and Hindustani church edifices, dormitory, mission¬ 
ary residences, etc., the whole constituting an equipment not 
only in material, but also in an intellectual and spiritual 
sense of inestimable value to the progress of Christianity in 


26 o 


THE STONE OF HELP 


the Indian Empire. Here the Indian Witness is now pub¬ 
lished, having been recently removed from Calcutta. 

Allahabad. January 14, 1907, I arrived at Allahabad, 
the junction of the two sacred rivers, the Ganges and the 
Jumna. It is believed by the superstitious Hindus that there 
is a third river from beneath, flowing out of the earth, that 
joins the Ganges and the Jumna at that point, thus forming 
a trinity that gives to the place a peculiarly sacred value. 
At the time of my visit the great annual Hindu mela was 
at its height and the number of people in attendance was 
estimated by an English paper published at Allahabad at 
one million. In company with our missionary stationed at 
Allahabad, Rev. Dennis Clancy, I visited the grounds where 
the vast multitude was assembled, all pressing toward the 
sacred rivers. Just at the junction of the rivers the British 
government has erected a great fortress. Brother Clancy 
being chaplain to the English Wesleyan soldiers, stationed 
there, we were admitted to the fort, and by ascending its 
high, massive wall obtained a magnificent view of the whole 
situation. The people were spread over a large area, mainly 
within the fork of the rivers. All were anxious to have a 
bath in and to drink of the sacred waters, and the nearer 
the junction of the rivers the more effective the water 
in washing away their sins. Hundreds were plunging in 
and other hundreds having washed and drunk and filled 
small jars with the holy water to carry to their homes, were 
moving up the bank, their scant clothing dripping and caus¬ 
ing the surface to be converted into mud, in some places 
several inches deep. Many were making votive offerings 
of flowers by scattering them upon the sacred rivers. 

After surveying the scene from the walls of the fort we 
went down and mingled with the people. Here and there 
we came upon groups of children, three in a group, dressed 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


261 


to represent gods—three forming a trinity. To these chil¬ 
dren votive offerings of rice and maize and small coin were 
made. There were objects in the presence of these groups 
of children that must be nameless, to which offerings were 
made. We came upon a man, a representative of many, 
lying on his back with a coarse cloth over his face, head and 
face heaped over with earth, smiting his breast with 
clenched fists and muttering prayers. As we wandered on 
we came to a group of men—holy men they were called— 
reclining on heavy planks, six or seven feet in length, and 
about twenty inches in breadth, into which were inserted 
iron spikes, four or five inches long. The spikes with well 
rounded points stood closely, forming a somewhat solid 
surface, with the point of each spike distinct from its 
neighbors. These men were naked, except slight loin cloths, 
and they reclined or stretched their full length upon these 
spike-driven planks without protection. Their bodies and 
foreheads were smeared with coloring matter, their hair 
and beard were unkempt and unshaven, and their whole 
appearance was such as to excite at the same moment pity 
and disgust. Brother Clancy inquired of one of these in 
Hindustani how long he had been lying on those spikes 
and the answer was, “Twenty-three years.” 

“Have you had no other bed ?” 

The answer was, “No other bed.” 

The next question was, “What are you seeking for ?” 

The answer came: “I am seeking peace.” 

The final question was, “Have you found it?” 

With a shake of his head and in a sad voice, he replied, 
“No, I’ve not found it.” 

As we continued our walk we came to a tank, six or seven 
feet high, and seven or eight feet in diameter, filled with 
water. Floating upon the water was the image of a nude 


262 


THE STONE OF HELP 


human body, nearly life size, lying on its back, with legs 
extended upward and outward. A more repulsive object 
could scarcely be imagined. Around the tank, about mid¬ 
way of its height, there was a gallery about six feet wide, 
reached by a flight of five or six steps. There was a con¬ 
stant stream of people passing around the tank, along the 
gallery, making votive offerings and mumbling prayers to 
the loathsome image above described. 

The day closed with a visit to a subterranean temple, 
where there were objects to which offerings were made by 
the multitude that thronged it that decency will not allow 
me to even name, much less to describe. As the sun dis¬ 
appeared I repaired to the home of Brother Clancy with a 
sense of heart-sickness that comes back to me across the 
intervening years, as memory recalls the scenes of that 
day. Hinduism makes sacred, objects that are loathsome 
and practices that are demoralizing and degrading beyond 
description. 

Cawnpore. The annals of history may be searched in 
vain for a cruel, bloody tragedy that will parallel the 
slaughter that occurred at Cawnpore, under the leadership 
of the arch-traitor and fiend, Nana Sahib, July 15, 1857. 
One must read The Land of the Veda, by Dr. William 
Butler, if one would have a detailed description of that 
horror of horrors. The capture of this city by the gallant 
General Havelock and his brave army when on their way 
to the relief of Lucknow, came too late to save the lives of 
the hundreds of men, women, and children cruelly slaugh¬ 
tered there. There stands the “House of Massacre,” where 
two hundred and one women and children and five men were 
shut in and guarded by Sepoys for nineteen days of tropical 
heat, scantily fed, awaiting their awful doom at the hands 
of five butchers. “With their knives and swords they 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


263 


entered and the door was fastened behind them. The 
shrieks and scuffling within told those without that these 
journeymen were executing their masters’ will. The evi¬ 
dence shows that it took them exactly an hour and a half to 
finish it; then they came out, having earned their hire. . . . 
Then a number of methers (scavengers) were called,” and 
the “dying with the dead” were dropped down into the 
open well. 

In company with Brother Harvey E. Calkins, our mis¬ 
sionary at Cawnpore, at the time of my visit, I looked upon 
the “House of Massacre” and the beautiful monument and 
shrine that mark the well, erected by the British government 
and recalled with a shudder the awful tragedy. The house, 
shrine, and monument are surrounded by a beautiful garden, 
where under a tropical sky, the flowers perpetually bloom, fit 
emblem of the precious lives that were sacrificed to the 
hatred of a heartless, heathen prince. At the time of my 
visit an important evangelistic work was going forward 
which has steadily advanced, and other lines of activity have 
been successfully pursued. 

Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal, three miles from Agra, is 
the world’s masterpiece in architecture. It was built by 
the Great Mogul Shah Jehan, for a tomb for his favorite 
wife, Arjmand Banu. It stands in the midst of a mag¬ 
nificent garden, on the bank of the Jumna, adorned with 
flowers of every hue and with stately trees, affording de¬ 
lightful shade from the heat of a tropical sun. It was 
commenced in 1603 and was completed in 1625, at a cost, 
some authorities say, of $6,155,062; others says $10,582,- 
675; and still others, $15,874,010. The architect of the 
wonderful structure is not known. It is known, however, 
that Austin de Bordeaux, a Frenchman, was in the em¬ 
peror’s service when the Taj was erected, and it is believed 


264 


THE STONE OF HELP 


that he took part in the decorations, and especially in the 
inlaid work. It is claimed that the whole Koran is inlaid 
upon the edifice in Arabic. It would be impossible even for 
a skilled artist to describe the carvings or enumerate the 
precious stones with which the whole structure is adorned. 

Many writers have essayed to describe this marvelous 
creation and what they have written has seemed to many 
to be overdone or even extravagant, but it may well be 
doubted whether anyone has even approached the reality. 
It has been described epigrammatically as “frozen music” 
and “a dream in marble.” As I gazed upon it I said, “It is 
a realization in marble of strength, symmetry, and beauty.” 
It is so solid and strong that it looks as though it might 
stand forever. Although it has stood for more than three 
hundred years, there is not the slightest appearance of flaw 
or weakness in either foundation or structure. In sym¬ 
metricalness it is faultless. In beauty it is perfection. 
There is a rhythm and delicacy in every curve and line 
that is at once charming and entrancing. 

It was about 4 .*30 p. m. when I passed through the arched 
gateway into the spacious grounds, adorned with tropical 
verdure of great richness and beauty. The whole edifice 
was bathed in the light of the declining sun. Later, as the 
sun dropped to the level of the horizon, the Taj for a few 
moments became golden, and then slowly faded as daylight 
died away until, under the pale light of a crescent moon, 
it became ashen, but not less beautiful. Indeed, the moon¬ 
light view, being subdued, is more impressive than that by 
sunlight. The visitor should not fail to see it under both 
the sun and the moon. In either case it is a picture that 
never fades from one’s mind. 


CHAPTER XXXIII 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 
(continued) 

Three Conferences 

Northwest India Conference. This Conference held its 
annual session in Muttra, commencing January 16, 1907, 
under the joint presidency of Bishops FitzGerald and 
Warne. For more than fifteen years a successful “mass 
movement” had been going forward, resulting in a Chris¬ 
tian community of eighty thousand. This movement, at 
that time largely within the bounds of the Northwest and 
North India Conferences, appeared to be only in its begin¬ 
ning and has been increasing in volume and power as the 
years have gone by. There is every reason to expect that 
in the northern part of the Indian empire, including the 
whole valley of the upper Ganges, millions of Christians 
will be gathered into the church in the not very distant 
future. The many millions are there; their old religions 
are relaxing their hold; the trend toward the Christian reli¬ 
gion has set in, and God knows what the future holds in 
store. 

More Missionaries Needed 

Each of the two Conferences named above had at that 
time a strong force of Indian preachers raised up and edu¬ 
cated on the ground. Their number will inevitably be 
multiplied, but they will need the guidance of strong and 

265 


266 


THE STONE OF HELP 


wise men from the home church to hold them steady while 
they are in the formative period. For several years I 
had believed that the number of missionaries should be 
doubled, but when on the ground I was more thoroughly 
convinced of that need than ever before. Indeed, if there 
had been four times as many missionaries on the field, they 
would not have been able to enter the many doors that were 
wide open. The great difficulty was to finance the work. 
The only point of failure was in trying to make one dollar 
provide for three dollars’ worth of property and work. 
While many obstacles have been encountered, and very 
cruel persecutions have been inflicted upon converts by 
heathen neighbors, the work has gone on throughout the 
Conference triumphantly. 


Fire-Worship 

Muttra is on the Ganges River, upon the banks of which 
there are many Hindu temples. The entire river from its 
source to its entrance into the Bay of Bengal, a distance 
of fifteen hundred and seventy-five miles, is regarded as 
sacred. At Muttra there is a celebrated temple with an 
altar that fronts on the river. From the altar, which 
stands on a spacious platform, the river is reached by a 
flight of marble steps numbering fifty or more, sloping down 
to the edge of the water. In length the steps are probably 
seventy-five feet, making a broad passage from the platform 
to the river. On a flatboat a dozen or more missionaries 
and visitors were rowed up the river a distance of about 
half a mile to witness a religious ceremony that was to take 
place at six o’clock in the evening. Our boat was anchored 
immediately in front of and near to the flight of steps and 
altar that stood on the platform. Having reached our 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 267 

position for observation a half hour before the ceremony 
was performed, we had time and opportunity to observe 
the conduct of the many pilgrims there assembled, some of 
whom we were informed had traveled long distances. 
Large numbers were going down the steps, bathing in and 
drinking of the water of holy Ganges, while as many others, 
having had their bath and drink, were ascending. Mixing 
with the people on the steps were several cows, moving 
down and up munching the rice and maize that were pre¬ 
sented as votive offerings to the cows and the river. A 
colony of monkeys were also mingling with the crowd, going 
down to the water, drinking, washing their faces, hands, 
and arms, doing just what they saw the people do, except 
that they did not plunge into the water. 

When the hour for the ceremony arrived a priest came 
out of the temple carrying a pyramid of fire, apparently 
two feet high, which he placed on the high altar. Then 
ascending the altar himself, he elevated the pyramid several 
times, the people meanwhile acclaiming and worshiping the 
fire. At our distance the fire appeared to flame out of the 
pyramid, and when it was finally deposited upon the altar 
the people crowded about it, thrusting their hands into 
the holy flame and then rubbing their arms, faces, and half- 
naked bodies, seeking to transfer its virtue to their own 
persons. 

Central Provinces Conference. This is the youngest of 
our India Conferences, occupying a position territorially in 
the southern part of Central India, and has an estimated 
population of about fifteen million. Jubbulpore, the prin¬ 
cipal city, is situated about midway between Bombay and 
Calcutta, which are separated by a distance of fourteen 
hundred miles and had in 1907 a population of ninety 
thousand. The Conference met in Jubbulpore, January 23, 


268 


THE STONE OF HELP 


under the presidency of Bishops FitzGerald and Warne. 
Up to the date of the Conference the progress along evan¬ 
gelistic lines had not been so great as in the northern Con¬ 
ferences, and yet substantial results had been achieved. 
Property interests had been well promoted by the veteran 
missionary now retired, Dr. T. S. Johnson, who was desig¬ 
nated as the “property-getter.” 


A Plague-Stricken City 

At the time of the Conference Jubbulpore was in the 
deadly grip of the bubonic plague, which is usually at its 
worst in the cold season—December and January. The 
medical profession had decided that the disease was propa¬ 
gated by rats. The houses, or huts rather, of the people 
are rat harbors. The plague-stricken rats are bitten by 
fleas, and the fleas—which are legion—bite and infect the 
people. The superstitious Hindu will kill neither rat nor 
flea, lest he might be killing an ancestor. I was frequently 
told that the first indication of the presence of the dreaded 
disease was the finding of dead rats in the narrow streets, 
alleys, and filthy huts. When the people were attacked a 
panic ensued and many fled to the fields and found shelter 
in grass huts or camped under trees. 

Our missionaries, however, had been wonderfully pre¬ 
served, notwithstanding the fact that none of them had fled 
when their people were plague-stricken, but had remained 
with them and in many instances ministered with their own 
hands to the sick and dying. 

The Bengal Conference. The Bengal Conference met 
in Thoburn Methodist Episcopal Church, January 31, in 
Calcutta, under the joint presidency of Bishops FitzGerald 
and Robinson. Bishop Thoburn was also present during 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 269 

the entire session and participated both in the business and 
in the religious services. The English Methodist Episcopal 
Church in Calcutta was founded by William Taylor. In 
i 8 y 4 , Dr. Thoburn became its first regular pastor. His 
appearance marked a new era in the English-speaking work, 
which since that time has made great progress. Indeed, he 
is regarded as the founder of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in what is now the Bengal Conference, and is loved 
and honored by both English-speaking and native people 
as is no other man. It was announced that he would preach 
on Conference Sabbath evening in the church, which will 
accommodate one thousand people, and the edifice was filled. 

A Great Educational Plant 

In the city of Calcutta the Methodist Episcopal Church 
owns a very valuable property, the history of which is most 
interesting. When Bishop Thoburn was pastor he set apart 
a portion of the parsonage as a boarding place for the little 
boys who were then attending the Calcutta girls' school. 
Soon it became evident that a separate institution was 
needed for boys, and one was duly established. But to 
keep the institution afloat taxed the resources of the founder 
to the utmost, and through many years successive pastors 
and presiding elders found it one of their most perplexing 
problems. At first Bishop Thoburn solicited from travelers 
and merchants in the city the money needed to keep up the 
school. At length Mr. Robert Laidlaw, an Englishman, 
became interested in this institution and decided to make 
generous provision for it. He bought a large tract of land 
eligibly located, on which, aided by a government building- 
grant, he erected a magnificent three-story building afford¬ 
ing ample accommodation for about two hundred boys. 


270 THE STONE OF HELP 

Into this enterprise Mr. Laidlaw put 150,000 rupees, or 
$50,000. In 1902 he placed in the hands of Presiding Elder 
(now Bishop) Robinson the sum of 200,000 rupees 
($66,666) for the erection of a block of buildings, the net 
income of which was to be perpetually applied to the support 
of the school. When the original school building for Euro¬ 
pean and Eurasian boys was erected by Mr. Laidlaw, it 
was determined by Presiding Elder (now Bishop) Warne, 
that the mission must also be provided with a suitable build¬ 
ing for the education of Bengali youths. With heroic faith 
he invested 60,000 rupees ($20,000) in a large section of 
the tract originally purchased by Mr. Laidlaw, borrowing 
the money on favorable terms from a local bank. At the 
same time, he borrowed as much more for the erection of 
the Bengali school building. On this large sum he had to 
provide the interest, which together with the principal 
aggregated in fourteen years 150,000 rupees ($50,000). 
When Mr. Laidlaw offered to erect the endowment block 
it was agreed that the Bengali school should be incorporated 
into the general endowment scheme. So the Endowment 
Trust took over the buildings and the indebtedness, agree¬ 
ing to administer the whole plant in behalf of the Calcutta 
boys' school. Extensive remodeling of the old Bengali 
school building on modern lines was necessary to fit it for 
residential purposes. Now there are twenty-six handsome, 
well-appointed suites of apartments, from which a revenue 
of 30,000 rupees ($10,000) per annum is realized. At that 
time two thirds of the net income was set aside as a sinking 
fund, and one third went to the boys’ school for its main¬ 
tenance. The value of the whole property was about 
675,000 rupees ($225,000), and good judges of real estate 
affirmed that the time was near when it would be worth 
1,000,000 rupees ($333,333). As I looked upon this splen- 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


271 

did property I thanked God for such generous and far- 
reaching plans in that great educational center of India. 

The Revival 

The revival which had prevailed in the more northern 
part of the country during the previous year had been felt 
in parts of the Bengal Conference. At Asansol there had 
been remarkable manifestations of the presence of the Holy 
Spirit. A spirit of intercessory prayer had fallen upon the 
members of the native church, which was regarded as the 
forerunner of a great revival. The number of conversions 
and baptisms had been greater than in any previous year, 
and the future was full of promise. 

On the Heights 

The snowy range which crowns the Himalayas is called 
“The Roof of the World,” because it is the highest moun¬ 
tain range on this planet. Among its numerous peaks is 
Mount Everest, which reaches an altitude of twenty-nine 
thousand and sixty-two feet and is the highest mountain in 
the world. One of the points from which this snowy range 
can be seen to best advantage is three hundred miles north¬ 
east of Calcutta and more than seven thousand feet above 
sea level. The journey thither from Calcutta was made by 
standard gauge railroad to Siliguri, near the base of the 
range. About one hundred and sixteen miles from Calcutta 
the “Holy Mother Ganges” was crossed by ferry. At Sili¬ 
guri a change was made to a railroad with a two-foot gauge 
over which the rest of the journey to Darjeeling, a distance 
of sixty-seven miles, was made. The construction of this 
line was one of the most remarkable feats of mountain engi¬ 
neering skill ever achieved. The cars are small, each accom- 


272 THE STONE OF HELP 

modating twelve persons, and are graded first, second, and 
third-class. 


Up the Mountain 

Soon after leaving Siliguri the road begins to ascend the 
mountain range. As one looks backward, the vast fertile 
plain of Bengal is seen stretching away toward the horizon, 
while ahead are the mountains, ravines, and gorges which 
seem to block the way and to render progress impossible. 
For a considerable distance the train passes through a dense 
jungle, the abode of wild hogs, deer, bears, buffaloes, rhi¬ 
noceroses, and tigers. Here vegetable life has great variety 
and rank growth. The grass is coarse, having feathery tops 
or plume-shaped tassels, and is often high enough to con¬ 
ceal a large animal or a full-grown man. There are also 
canes from twenty to fifty feet high, shaped like immense 
carriage whips. Higher up the slopes the jungle gives place 
to forests of oak, banyan, acacia, fig, and India rubber, 
mingled with great clumps of bamboo several feet in cir¬ 
cumference at the base and higher up flaring into graceful 
and beautiful forms. Higher still may be seen almond, 
peach, and chestnut trees. Tea plantations now become 
quite numerous on the most precipitous mountain slopes, 
where the sun exposure is such as the tea plant requires. 

On the morning of January 31, at six o’clock, I was on 
Observatory Hill, Darjeerling, from which point, when 
the sky is clear at sunrise, a splendid view may be had of 
the snowy range. However, to my great disappointment, 
when the sun rose, a heavy cloud was stretched along the 
whole range and not a mountainpeak was in view. Nearly 
an hour later the sun began to agitate the cloud, which 
was suddenly broken into fragments and swept away. Then 
the majestic snow-clad peaks stood out in all their glory, 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


273 


bathed in sunlight and glittering like burnished silver. 
Although the whole range could not be seen, there were 
fifteen peaks in view at the same moment, among them 
old Kinchinjunga, more than twenty-four thousand feet 
high. Words cannot do justice to this scene, but the picture 
of it will remain in memory’s gallery to be admired forever. 


CHAPTER XXXIV 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 
(continued) 

Rangoon, Capital of Burma 

The writer saw no city in Southern Asia that was more 
interesting than Rangoon, the capital of Burma. It has a 
population of about two hundred and fifty thousand and is 
the most important city of Burma. Its streets are usually 
wide, well made, and clean. In population it is cosmo¬ 
politan. Nearly all the languages of Southern and Eastern 
Asia are spoken here. On Conference Sunday it was my 
privilege to preach to a congregation in which nine lan¬ 
guages were spoken. It was called a united vernacular 
service. The languages were English, Burmese, Telugu, 
Tamil, Hindustani, Chin, Karen, Kanarese, and Chinese. 
The sermon was translated into Burmese as it was delivered. 
Then interpreters who had made notes, gave it in Telugu, 
Tamil, and Chinese, so that it was given in five languages in 
all. For once in my life I spoke with tongues—the tongues 
of other people. Of course the Burmans predominate in the 
city, and this is true in Burma as a whole. In religion 
they are Buddhists. Hinduism has crowded out or ab¬ 
sorbed the Buddhism of India, but has not been able to 
accomplish like results in Burma. The people are far freer 
than in India, as in Buddhism there is no such thing as caste. 
Here women have far greater freedom than in India. They 
are free to go upon the street or to travel, and may attend 
274 



THE GREAT BUDDHIST PAGODA, RANGOON, BURMA 








































VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


275 


public religious services at will. Buddhism, however, de¬ 
grades woman below the level of man. She is not regarded 
as man’s equal and does not presume to claim equality. 

The Pagoda 

The one great monument to Buddha is the pagoda. It 
is found in all parts of Burma and is of all sizes and dimen¬ 
sions. The pagoda at Rangoon is the greatest and most 
elaborate in its setting and adornment to be found in Burma, 
or in the world. Like all pagodas, it has no interior hall 
or place of assembly. The people go to, not into, the pagoda 
for worship. It is claimed that this great pagoda was 
founded twenty-five hundred years ago and that beneath it 
are a few hairs from Buddha’s head, which give a peculiar 
sacredness to the structure. It stands on a great mound 
constructed for the purpose, the removal of the earth for 
which formed in part the basin of the Royal Lakes, which 
are surrounded by a magnificently adorned park. The 
spire, which is probably about three hundred feet high, is 
covered with gold and dazzles the eyes of the beholder as 
it reflects the rays of the sun. This great central structure 
is surrounded by a great number of pagodas of varying 
sizes and by temples and shrines containing numerous 
images of Buddha. These images are of all dimensions, not 
a few of them being mammoth in size. But whatever the 
size, the expression of the countenance is always the same— 
that of serene, unconscious repose. 

At Pegu, about fifty miles from Rangoon, there is an 
image in a reclining position which measures from crown 
of head to sole of foot more than two hundred feet. It is 
constructed of brick and mortar, with a plaster front, giving 
form of body and features. 

At Mandalay, nearly four hundred miles north of Ran- 


276 THE STONE OF HELP 

goon, there is a great pagoda which is unique in its sur¬ 
roundings. It stands in the center of a parallelogram one 
half mile square. Running out from the center in parallel 
lines east, west, north, and south, are seven hundred and 
twenty-nine small structures, or pagodas, arched on each 
of their four sides, and in the center of each side is an 
alabaster tablet four feet eight inches high and three feet 
six inches wide, upon which is engraved a section of the 
Buddhistic law. 


Burmese People 

The Burmese are as dark-skinned as are the people of 
India, but they are more strongly built and have a more 
robust appearance. They are well proportioned, very erect, 
and sprightly in their movements. Burma is rich in agri¬ 
cultural resources, and except in small sections of the north¬ 
ern part the country has never known famine, and seldom 
has even a shortage of harvest. While it produces a large 
variety of cereals, vegetables, and fruits, its great staple is 
rice. On a trip of nearly four hundred miles, through lower 
Burma, I saw enormous quantities of “paddy” (rice in the 
hull) in heaps and sacks, at every station, awaiting shipment 
to the rice mills. It is said that every night in the year 
millions of people in India lie down to sleep hungry because 
of scarcity of food, while in times of famine many die of 
starvation. But this cannot be said of the people of Burma. 
All who are healthy, industrious, and provident may have 
enough to eat and something over. This plentiful food 
supply accounts for the good physical condition of the 
people. The mildness of the climate makes any considerable 
amount of clothing unnecessary. Laborers are usually 
naked from hips up and from the thighs down, while the 
children not infrequently are clad in well-fitting, natural 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


277 


suits of very dark brown. Business and professional men 
and gentlemen dress according to their taste as to style and 
color, both of which are well-nigh endless. The same may 
be said of the costumes of women. Both sexes are fond 
of bright colors. Red and pink and combinations of these 
colors with others of the brighter hues are the most popular. 
The red and pink turban is a favorite with men, and a scarf 
of some bright color furnishes a pretty headdress for 
women. Upon the whole, the costumes of the people are 
well adapted to the country in which they live, and the 
substitution of European styles, which is becoming quite 
common in Rangoon, does not improve the appearance of 
either sex. The healthfulness of the country is exceptional 
as compared with some other parts of Southern Asia. The 
bubonic plague, which so ravaged large portions of India, 
had been far less prevalent in Burma. 

Burma Conference 

The seventh session of the Burma Mission Conference 
was opened in Rangoon, Saturday, February 3, 1907, under 
the presidency of Bishops FitzGerald and Robinson. Re¬ 
ports showed that encouraging progress was being made. 
The Girls’ High School and the Burmese School for Girls, 
both belonging to the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, 
were in a flourishing condition. An addition to the edifice 
of the latter had been erected the previous year at a cost of 
$2,666. The foundation of the new building of the Anglo- 
Vernacular Boys’ School had been completed and the corner 
stone was laid by Bishop FitzGerald. The same day the 
corner stone of the Epworth Memorial Church was laid by 
Bishop Thoburn, which was particularly fitting, as he 
opened our mission in Rangoon in 1879. In his address 
the Bishop gave a most interesting account of the early 


278 


THE STONE OF HELP 


struggles and later history of our work in Rangoon, and 
uttered an optimistic prophecy concerning the future of the 
kingdom of God in Burma. The Burma Mission was then 
and still remains the smallest of our nine Southern Asia 
missions. At that time the whole force consisted of ten 
missionaries of the Board of Foreign Missions, four of 
whom were wives and five women of the Woman’s Foreign 
Missionary Society. Not one of the missionaries of the 
Board had been on the field more than three years. They 
were young and few in number, but they were heroic and 
hopeful. 

Street Sunday School 

To secure a practical illustration of missionary methods 
in Sunday school work, I accompanied Miss Stockwell, a 
lady missionary, on a Sunday afternoon to a Sunday school 
under her care in Rangoon. 

It was 3 p. m. and the sun was hot. We were driven to 
the place in a mission “garri,” a four-wheeled wagon with 
a cover made of wood, to protect against the pouring rains 
of the monsoon and the scorching heat of the dry season. 
A folded “baby organ” was a necessary accompaniment, 
and there were also a well-trained and instructed native 
Bible woman and a native Sunday school teacher. The 
place selected for the service was the shady side of a nar¬ 
row street. Several children were awaiting our arrival and 
at once spread the news along the street. Soon there was 
a company of about seventy-five children ranging from four 
to twelve years of age, fully one fourth of whom were clad 
in nature’s own costume, the remaining three fourths wear¬ 
ing combination suits, of which nature furnished the larger 
part. Bamboo mats were spread upon the ground and the 
boys and girls were quickly seated. The organ was un- 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


279 


folded and the school opened with several songs, followed 
by a prayer by the Bible woman, the children reverently 
bowing their heads and joining in the Lord’s Prayer at the 
close. Then came the lesson, appropriate pictures for which 
were shown and explained. The Golden Text of the day 
was soon memorized, and the Golden Texts of former 
lessons were recalled and repeated. Again there were songs, 
and picture cards were distributed. 


CHAPTER XXXV 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 
(continued) 

Malaysia 

A sail on the steamer Bharaya, covering about seventy 
hours from Rangoon, brought our party to Penang, located 
on a small island off the mainland of the Malay Peninsula 
and containing a population of one hundred and ninety 
thousand. At Rangoon the Chinese element is pronounced, 
but at Penang it is predominant, sixty per cent of the popu¬ 
lation being of that nationality. The remaining forty per 
cent is divided between Tamils and Malays, the former 
being the more numerous. The Chinese are not only the 
most numerous but are also the most enterprising and 
thrifty. 

Our Anglo-Chinese school building, a commodious struc¬ 
ture, was erected mainly by the gift of Captain Wood, of 
Pittsburgh. The school had an enrollment of eight hun¬ 
dred, the limit of its capacity, and would have been larger 
had the building been more spacious. The current expenses 
of the school were met from tuition fees, grants made by 
the government, and gifts from the Chinese, no missionary 
money being used for that purpose. The Rev. G. F. Pykett 
was head master of this school, and to his skill, both as 
manager and financier, the school was largely indebted 
for its remarkable prosperity. 

280 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


281 


Federated Malay States 

This federation is bounded on the north by that portion 
of the colony of the Straits Settlements known as Province 
Wellesley and by the native states of Kedah, Patani, Kalan- 
tan, and Tringano, on the south by the colonial territory of 
Malacca and Johore, on the east and west by the China Sea 
and the Straits of Malacca respectively, and covers twenty- 
seven thousand square miles of territory. These Malay 
states contain vast deposits of tin ore, which is being taken 
out in large quantities. There are also deposits of gold, 
silver, lead, iron, and copper and in lesser quantities a 
variety of other valuable minerals. Great attention is being 
given to the rubber industry. In many places the jungle has 
been cleared and the rubber-tree is growing. 

The topography of the peninsula is varied. A range of 
mountains runs nearly through its entire length. The height 
of the range is from three thousand to eight thousand feet 
above sea level. From this central chain the land on either 
side slopes away to the seacoast. Dense and luxuriant 
tropical forests stretch from the mountain summits to the 
seashore. In these is found a vast variety of plant and 
tree life, from the tiny, delicate fern to the giant hardwood 
of great commercial value. One cannot conceive the 
denseness and apparent impenetrableness of a genuine tropi¬ 
cal forest until one has come face to face with it. I had 
read that Livingstone, Stanley, and other explorers used to 
cut their way through African forests, but I did not under¬ 
stand until now the magnitude of such a task. Tropical 
fruits abound both in quantity and variety—durian, mang- 
steen, banana, rambutan, pineapple, guava, lime, orange, 
custard apple, soursap, mango, papaya, longsat, rambeth, 
etc. Many of these fruits are delicious and all are healthful 
if eaten in moderation. The Federated Malay States are 


282 


THE STONE OF HELP 


under the protection of the British government, which really 
means that Britain is supreme. The states of Perak, Selan¬ 
gor, and Pahang have each a Sultan, and the states of Negri 
and Simbilan have each a chief, but neither Sultan nor 
chief has political authority independent of Great Britain. 
The principal civil officer in the states is an Englishman 
known as the resident-general, in whom is vested the politi¬ 
cal authority of all the states. He is assisted by a staff of 
federal officers, to whom is intrusted the supervision of the 
departments of finance, lands, mines, police, prisons, and 
education. British occupation was established in 1874, and 
since that time great progress has been made in the develop¬ 
ment of the peninsula. Then there was not a mile of high¬ 
way; now there are thousands of miles of fine, macadamized 
roads, which are a great delight to automobilists. A rail¬ 
road is in operation down to the southern point of the 
peninsula, just beyond which, on an island, is the city of 
Singapore. Instead of taking ship at Penang direct to 
Singapore, I made the trip by rail, stopping at important 
points on the way. The first stop was at Taiping, from 
which a side trip of nine miles was made to our sanitorium 
bungalow, situated on a mountain at an elevation of four 
thousand feet. The first three miles was covered by a 
jinrikisha and the remaining six by chair, carried by coolies. 
The road, narrow, zigzag and very steep in places, lay 
through a tropical forest. The solemn silence and grandeur 
of a dense tropical forest inspires a sense of awe. On 
either side of the narrow way there is an impenetrable 
jungle. There are trees of all sizes and heights with huge, 
serpent-like vines winding about their trunks from root 
to topmost branch and creepers that run every whither, 
weaving a sort of web connecting the tops of the trees and 
forming a canopy, bedecked and bespangled with flowers of 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 283 

every hue. Not a sound was heard except an occasional 
note of a bird or the weird cry of a monkey. On the return 
trip, made partly by moonlight, the tropical orchestra was 
in evidence. Whether the performers used stringed instru¬ 
ments or voices or both, I do not know. But this I know, 
that for variety of discordant sounds that concert exceeded 
anything I ever heard; and yet those discordant sounds 
blended into a fascinating harmony. 

But why build a sanatorium where it is so difficult of 
access? For the reason that if it were at sea level, it would 
not serve the purpose of a sanatorium in a tropical country. 
In such a climate it is not so much the intensity of the heat 
that unstrings the nerves and softens the muscles as the 
almost unvarying temperature. There is no change of 
season at the equator, for summer is perpetual. The varia¬ 
tion in twenty-four hours is from four to seven degrees. 
To secure a noticeable change in temperature one must find 
it on mountain heights. Our missionaries in Malaysia find 
it at Taiping Sanatorium, four thousand feet above sea level. 

At Taiping the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society has 
a well-equipped girls’ school and the parent board a Tamil 
congregation with native pastor. A run of three and a half 
hours from that point brought us to Ipoh, a town of fifteen 
thousand people, where we have a boys’ school, a Woman’s 
Foreign Missionary Society boarding school for girls, both 
furnished with suitable buildings. The buildings for the 
boys’ school were erected by the gifts of Chinese business 
men, eager that their boys should be educated. Here we 
have also a plain, comfortable house of worship and a 
bungalow for the missionary. Three different ‘Congrega¬ 
tions worshiped in the church each Sabbath: the Tamils 
at 10:30 a. m., the Chinese at 11 .*30 a. m., and the English 
at 6 p. m. It was the writer’s privilege to preach to about 


284 


THE STONE OF HELP 


one hundred members of the Chinese congregation and to 
the English congregation of fifty, the former sermon being 
interpreted in two dialects. The Chinese and Tamil church 
membership was three hundred, being about equally divided 
between the two nationalities. The estimated value of our 
school and church property, including land, was $50,000 
Mexican, all of which had been raised on the field. Here 
at Ipoh there is a great mountain of solid marble of excel¬ 
lent quality and extensive quarries and marble works were 
in operation. 

Kuala Lumpur 

Another run of six and a half hours brought me to Kuala 
Lumpur, a city of thirty thousand inhabitants, more than 
half of whom were Chinese, the remainder being divided 
between Tamils and Malays. The city was growing rapidly 
and was one of the most important business centers on the 
peninsula. Here we have a splendid site of seven acres, 
within ten minutes’ walk from the railroad depot, situated 
on an elevation overlooking the business center of the city, 
and upon which are located our boys’ school, which had an 
enrollment of three hundred and eighty-five, and our mis¬ 
sionary bungalow. The estimated value of the whole prop¬ 
erty was $50,000 Mexican, raised on the ground, and upon 
which there was no debt. Here we have English, Chinese, 
and Tamil congregations, all worshiping at different hours 
in the same church edifice. 

Singapore 

Singapore is one of the most important cities in the East¬ 
ern world. It forms the crossroads of the nations. The 
population was estimated at about a quarter of a million 
and was growing rapidly. As elsewhere on the Malay 
peninsula and adjacent islands, the Chinese are the most 





















































































































































































































































































































OLDHAM HALL, ANGLO-CHINESE COLLEGE, SINGAPORE 




























VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 285 

numerous and wealthy. The Tamils were pouring down 
that way from the north, and in some lines of trade and toil 
they were strong competitors with the Chinese. Our work 
was opened in Singapore in 1885. Dr. James M. Thoburn 
and the Rev. W. F. Oldham and wife entered that city with¬ 
out money or anything else, except that which is most 
valuable of all things—the gospel message. Revival serv¬ 
ices were opened in a public hall and in ten days a Methodist 
Episcopal Church was organized with two full members, 
who were formerly Wesleyans, and with nineteen proba¬ 
tioners. The development from that small beginning had 
been very remarkable. We then had a total membership 
of nearly four hundred, representing three Chinese dialects, 
in addition to Tamil, Malay, and English. Here was our 
Anglo-Chinese school for boys, which was wholly self-sup¬ 
porting and had an enrollment of one thousand and forty. 
Nine buildings were occupied by our schools, churches, 
and missionaries. Two valuable pieces of land had just 
been handed over by the government, one to serve as a site 
for our new English church, and the other for an addition 
to our school building. Our property here was easily worth 
a quarter of a million dollars, Mexican, the whole of which 
had been raised on the ground, except about $8,000 given 
by the Missionary Society. Great credit is due to Dr. Old¬ 
ham, who was in charge here at the beginning and who, by 
wise foresight as to location, and courage in assuming 
financial responsibility, made our success possible. The 
Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society has a deaconess 
home, and three girls’ schools, all finely located. 

Contiguous Islands 

Our work had already spread to the islands of Borneo, 
Java, and Sumatra by clearly providential leadings. Chinese 


286 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Methodists came from Foochow, China, and colonized in 
Borneo. In the colony was a local preacher, and when the 
people asked for oversight and help both were given. The 
opening in Java came in 1905, when the Rev. J. R. Denyes 
began work. The first efforts were carried on among Eng¬ 
lish people at Batavia. Missionary work among the Chinese 
was opened at Buitenzorg, November 5, 1905, and the 
growth has been steady ever since. A Roman Catholic 
community about fifteen miles from Batavia asked to be 
taken under the care of our missionary and seventy-five 
probationers were received. At other points on the island 
work had been opened and at the session of the Malaysia 
Conference a new district was formed, including Sumatra, 
Java, and Dutch Borneo, of which Mr. Denyes was ap¬ 
pointed presiding elder. 

The Malaysia Conference 

The Annual Conference session was held at Penang, 
February 20-24, Bishops FitzGerald and Oldham presiding. 
Bishop Thoburn was present during a part of the time. 
The usual business of a Conference in a great mission field 
was transacted with promptness. The educational anni¬ 
versary was held in the City Hall and was presided over 
by the British resident councilor. Addresses were made 
by the British resident, Bishop Oldham, the Rev. G. F. 
Pykett, and the writer. 

A Sad Bereavement 

Bishop FitzGerald, his wife, two daughters, and a son 
were members of our party on the journey through India, 
Burma, and Malaysia, attending eight Conferences in all. 
Arriving at Penang, February 17, the elder daughter, Miss 
Cornelia, was somewhat indisposed. A few days later she 


VISIT TO SOUTHERN ASIA 


287 


developed malignant smallpox, and on Saturday, March 2, 
she passed away. When the case was pronounced smallpox 
something like consternation existed among the members of 
the Malaysia Conference, which was approaching the close 
of its annual session. Although the visiting party, the mem¬ 
bers of the Conference, and their wives and children and 
the missionaries of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary So¬ 
ciety took their meals in the building in which Miss Fitz¬ 
Gerald was entertained, and although many of the ladies as 
well as the members of the Bishop’s family were frequent 
visitors to the young lady’s room, the infection did not 
spread, and no one else in attendance upon the Conference 
was attacked by the dread disease. The sickness and death 
of his daughter made it impossible for Bishop FitzGerald 
to visit Manila, which was a cause for sincere regret on the 
part of Bishops Thoburn and Oldham and the whole Con¬ 
ference. 

Since 1907, while there has been no such mass movement 
in Malaysia as in some parts of India, there has been a 
steady advance, particularly along educational lines. There 
has been also encouraging progress in all other departments 
of missionary activity. 


CHAPTER XXXVI 


THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 
Manila 

It was on May i, 1898, that the fleet under Admiral 
Dewey entered Manila Bay and in a few hours sank the 
entire Spanish fleet and held the city of Manila helpless 
under its guns. Later the American army occupied the city, 
and from this center extended the authority of the United 
States over the entire Philippine Archipelago. Since 
American occupation the city has grown rapidly and now 
has a population of three hundred and fifty thousand. Great 
improvements have been made by opening new streets, re¬ 
pairing old ones, building sewers, constructing electric 
street railways and installing a fine electric light system. 
In sixteen years Manila has grown to be quite modern, and 
is already one of the great commercial cities of the Orient. 

Romanism 

Anyone who supposes that the Roman Catholic Church 
has voluntarily loosened her hold upon the Filipino people 
makes a great mistake. It is true, however, that vast num¬ 
bers of these people have repudiated the Roman hierarchy 
and are now adrift, apparently not steering for any port. 
What is known as the Aglipay movement seems to have lost 
its earlier force and to be on the decline. The decision of 
the Supreme Court of the islands, restoring the churches 
which Aglipay’s followers had been occupying in many 
of the pueblos to the Roman Catholic authorities was a 
288 


THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 289 

serious blow to the movement and leaves the people without 
places of worship. 

Protestantism 

Immediately after American occupation of the city sev¬ 
eral Protestant missionary societies opened work in Manila, 
and as rapidly as possible extended their work into the 
various islands and provinces. There are now eight or 
nine different denominations at work in the islands. What 
is known as the “Evangelical Union” has been organized, 
by which, with Manila as a common base, the territory has 
been divided among the different denominations, thus avoid¬ 
ing as far as possible a duplication of workers. This allot¬ 
ment of territory is generally accepted and is quite satisfac¬ 
tory. Under this division the northern part of the island 
of Luzon between Manila on the south and Dagupan on 
the north, is assigned to the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
The founding of our church on these islands forms a 
chapter in our history that is full of interest, and should 
not be forgotten. In February, 1899, after consulting with 
Bishop Andrews, the writer sent a cablegram to Bishop 
Thoburn, who was holding the Malaysia Mission Confer¬ 
ence at Singapore, requesting him to go to Manila, investi¬ 
gate the situation there, and advise the Missionary Office 
as to what ought to be done. A visit was promptly made, 
and within two weeks a church was organized. Mr. A. W. 
Prautch, a local preacher who had done missionary work in 
Bombay, and his wife were left in charge, the work being 
mainly among American soldiers and sailors who thronged 
the city at that time. In March, 1900, Bishop Thoburn 
returned to Manila and learned that Nicholas Zamora, 
under the direction of Mr. Prautch, had been holding meet¬ 
ings for some time, preaching to the people in their own 


2go 


THE STONE OF HELP 


tongue. Zamora was licensed as a local preacher by the 
Quarterly Conference of the church in Manila and was 
recommended for admission to the South Kansas Confer¬ 
ence, then holding its annual session. The recommenda¬ 
tion was cabled to the Missionary Office in New York and 
promptly forwarded to the writer, who was in attendance 
upon the Conference named above and who, by permission 
of Bishop Vincent, presented the request. The Conference 
promptly and enthusiastically admitted Mr. Zamora, elected 
him to deacon’s orders under the missionary rule, and 
Bishop Vincent transferred him to the Malaysia Confer¬ 
ence. Bishop Thoburn was informed by cable concerning 
the action taken, and the same day the ordination took place 
in Manila. Mr. Zamora was in 1907 the pastor of a church 
in Manila numbering over seven hundred members. We 
had no church edifice large enough to accommodate his 
congregation, and his services were held in a theater while 
the new Knox Memorial Church was in course of construc¬ 
tion. In all, we had in the city nineteen churches and chapels 
and twenty other preaching places. Some of these chapels 
were made of bamboo matting and were roofed with nipa, 
made from a species of scrub palm which grows in soggy 
ground. The houses and shacks in which the people live 
are usually constructed of the same material. 

The Conference 

The Philippine Islands Mission Conference held its 
annual session in Central Church, Manila, under the presi¬ 
dency of Bishop Oldham, assisted by Bishop Thoburn. The 
church edifice is constructed of stone with gables of wood 
and roofed with asbestos, a fireproof, fibrous mineral, which 
is regarded as quite equal to slate. It was known as the 
American Methodist Episcopal Church, for the reason that 


THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 


291 


it is for the accommodation of English-speaking people. It 
is centrally located, well-built, well-furnished, and seats 
about two hundred and seventy-five. The Conference con¬ 
sisted of twelve missionaries, three of whom were on 
furlough; twenty-one Filipinos, three of whom were full 
members, and eighteen probationers. Six Filipinos were 
ordained deacons under the missionary rule; two Americans 
were elected to elder’s orders under the same rule, and one 
Filipino to elder’s orders in the regular course. Two local 
preachers were ordained deacons and two probationers were 
elected to deacon’s orders under the missionary rule. 

The reports of presiding elders, of missionaries in charge 
of large circuits, and of native pastors showed a marked 
advance. The numerical increase during the Conference 
year was over four thousand, making a total church mem¬ 
bership (including probationers) of more than twenty thou¬ 
sand. There were forty-four local preachers and three 
hundred and fifty exhorters; the churches and chapels num¬ 
bered eighty-eight; other preaching places two hundred 
and sixty-six; adults baptized, during the year, seventeen 
hundred and seventy-four; and children baptized five hun¬ 
dred and fifty-four. 

Among the Provinces 

The Conference over, in company with Bishop Oldham, 
the Rev. Rockwell Clancy, of the Northwest India Confer¬ 
ence, and the Revs. Robert Johnson and Harry Farmer, I 
made a trip of one hundred and twenty miles, to take part 
in the dedication of a new chapel and to visit important 
points where our work was already established. Leaving 
Manila, we traveled thirty-five miles by rail to San Fer¬ 
nando, then took carromata (a two-wheeled vehicle drawn 
by a pony) to Guagua, seven miles distant, where at 4 p. m., 


292 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Monday, March 18, 1907, we dedicated a typical Filipino 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 

The next day the journey was continued by rail eighty 
miles to Dagupan, where again we took carromata over a 
very rough road to Lingayen, a provincial capital, where 
there were a good missionary residence and a house used 
as a dormitory for boys of Methodist parents, who came 
from surrounding villages to attend the public high school. 
The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society has a building 
which is used for a girls’ school. After an hour’s rest a 
service was held in our chapel, about one hundred being in 
attendance. It was midnight when we reached Dagupan. 
On the return trip to Manila a stop of five hours was made 
at Gerona, where a service was held and the ordinances of 
the Lord’s Supper and of baptism were administered. This 
is the kind of work that was being done by our missionaries 
and Filipino preachers week days and Sabbaths as the years 
passed by. 

Missionary Bishops 

The wisdom of the policy of electing missionary bishops 
is splendidly vindicated by the success that has been achieved 
in Southern Asia since 1888. The splendid leadership of 
Bishops Thoburn, Warne, Oldham, the Bishops Robinson 
and Eveland, supported by the heroic labors of the mission¬ 
aries and the native preachers, has, under the blessing of 
God, brought to pass results that otherwise could not have 
been achieved. 


Hawaiian Islands 

Leaving Manila March 22, 1907, sailing via Hongkong 
along the coast of China, stopping at Amoy, Hinghwa, Foo¬ 
chow, Shanghai, Tokyo, as described in previous chapters, 


THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 


293 


I took the good ship Siberia at Yokohama, bound for San 
Francisco, which stopped nine hours at Honolulu, where, 
guided by Dr. John W. Wadman, superintendent of our 
work in the Hawaiian Islands, and using street cars and an 
automobile, I visited all our mission properties in Honolulu 
and made an excursion of several miles into adjoining 
territory. 

Home Again 

At 5 p. m. on July 8, the Siberia weighed anchor and put 
out to sea, heading for the Golden Gate, which she entered 
July 14, having voyaged on an almost waveless ocean. 

The first familiar face I saw upon the San Francisco 
dock was that of Dr. F. D. Bovard, then editor of the Cali¬ 
fornia Christian Advocate, who rendered valuable assistance 
in passing the customhouse ordeal. On my world-round 
journey I had entered many ports, and of all these the port 
of San Francisco, because of our protective tariff, was the 
most difficult and vexing. But I bear cheerful testimony 
concerning the gentlemanly conduct of the customs officers. 
It is the system itself that is vexatious. 

On July 24, after an absence of eight months and eighteen 
days, and having traveled nearly forty thousand miles with¬ 
out accident or a moment’s sickness, except when tossed 
on stormy seas, I reached New York, the point from which 
I had departed on November 6, 1906, with a heart full of 
gratitude to Him who has said, “There shall no evil befall 
thee.” 

America Forever 

There is no country on earth that equals the United States 
of America in resources and comforts. There is no coun¬ 
try where the people are so well housed, well fed, and well 
clothed, and where the future is so full of hope. 


CHAPTER XXXVII 


NORTH AFRICA—1910 

Having been authorized by the Board of Foreign Mis¬ 
sions to attend the organization of the North Africa Mis¬ 
sion and visit the Conferences in Europe, accompanied 
by Dr. John F. Fisher and his wife, Mrs. Lena Leonard 
Fisher (my daughter), of Cleveland, Ohio, I took the good 
ship Celtic, bound for Gibraltar, March 16, 1910. On 
March 22 our ship anchored off Porta Delgada, the prin¬ 
cipal city of the Azores group, with a Portuguese popula¬ 
tion of twenty-five thousand. The nine islands in this group 
are said to be the most important insular possessions of the 
Portuguese republic. There were eight hours at our dis¬ 
posal, which were spent in a rapid excursion through the 
city and suburb. The houses are of Portuguese architecture 
and are substantially built. The Roman Catholic Church 
is almost the only representative of Christianity in the city 
and on the entire group of islands, and is well supplied with 
stately cathedrals and church edifices. There is a union 
Protestant church in Porta Delgada, but it is small in num¬ 
bers, very limited in financial resources, and meets with 
almost insuperable opposition from the Roman Church. 

On March 24 the Celtic anchored off Funchal, Madeira 
Islands, a city picturesquely situated on a mountainside, 
claiming a population of fifty thousand. 

To obtain a view of the city we took a train with cogged 
driver and track and ascended the mountain about two 
294 


NORTH AFRICA 


295 


thousand feet, where the city and ocean were in full view. 
The scene is splendid. Once beheld it can never be effaced 
from memory. At one’s feet is the city ascending from the 
shore line up the mountainside, while beyond lies the wide 
expanse of the ocean, dotted with ships of commerce and 
boats that ply between the numerous adjacent islands. This 
group also belongs to the Portuguese Republic. 

Our mission premises are situated in the central part of 
Funchal, fronting on a public garden, beautifully adorned. 
The mission house, of pleasing architectural proportions, 
contains twenty-four rooms, affording accommodations for 
missionaries, Seamen’s Rest, school, church services, etc. 
At 3 p. m. a special service was held and we had the oppor¬ 
tunity of meeting the missionaries, native workers, and 
members of our church to the number of sixty or more. 
There are two other mission centers on the island, but too 
distant to be reached in the few hours at our disposal. The 
work as a whole was represented as being fairly prosperous. 

Saturday morning, March 26, our ship anchored off the 
great British rock fortress, Gibraltar, where a delightful 
Sabbath was spent with the Rev. A. B. Sackett, Wesleyan 
pastor, chaplain to the soldiers and sailors of the fortress 
and the harbor. It was my privilege to preach on Easter 
Sunday morning to a large congregation of brilliantly uni¬ 
formed soldiers and sailors and a goodly number of civilians, 
and in the evening Dr. Fisher preached to an audience 
equally large. At 9 p. m. we attended a service at the Wel¬ 
come Mission for Soldiers and Sailors, under the auspices 
of the Wesleyan Church. 

On March 28, at 7130 p. m., we sailed from Gibraltar on 
the steamer Friedrich der Grosse. Passing out of the 
harbor under the mellow light of a full moon, the rock 
fortress had the appearance of a mammoth sleeping dog, 


THE STONE OF HELP 


296 

whose bark, if he is ever angered, wiil be heard round the 
world. May he never have occasion to bark! 

Algiers 

Early in the morning of March 30 our ship anchored 
close to Algiers, on the north coast of Africa, having a 
population of one hundred and eighty thousand, taken by 
the French in 1830. The city is built on the side of an 
elevation which slopes upward from the sea, giving it a 
splendid setting, when viewed from the deck of a steamer. 
The streets are very winding and the houses rise above each 
other somewhat terrace fashion, overlooking the fine harbor. 

Algeria is a part of the French republic. The provinces 
are Oran, Algiers, and Constantine. Each has a senator 
and two representatives in the French Parliament in Paris. 
After the Franco-Prussian War (1870), a large number 
of French people living in Alsace-Lorraine—the French 
province taken by Germany—emigrated to Algeria, where 
they secured land at very low rates, and now as farmers are 
very prosperous. These French provinces in North Africa 
contain as fine farming land as can be found in all the world. 
The climate is so mild that there can be produced crops of 
various kinds of cereals, vegetables, etc., throughout the 
year. Potatoes are planted and dug in every month of the 
year. 

The two principal races in Algeria and Tunisia are the 
Arabs and the Berbers; the former includes the Moors and 
the latter the Kabyles. The Kabyles never lost their inde¬ 
pendence until conquered by the French eighty-four years 
ago. In North Africa there are probably about 175,000 
Jews. The European population is rapidly increasing. In 
Algiers there are about 75,000 French, probably 50,000 



the deck of a ship it presents a very imposing and picturesque appearance, the houses rising in terrace form from the level of the 
sea to a height of about five hundred feet. It consists of two parts, one of which is European in population and the other Oriental. 


























































































































































































- 




















































































- 







NORTH AFRICA 


297 


other foreigners, and 15,000 Jews. In Tunis there are 
about 50,000 Jews, 55,000 Italians, and 15,000 French. 
Some of the smaller towns are almost wholly European, 
but the Moslem population outnumbers all others combined, 
totaling about 5,000,000. 

The French language is dominant in business and social 
life, but various other languages are heard. The Kabyle, 
Moorish, Arabic, English, etc., are all spoken. There are 
seen on the streets all classes, from the richly and fashion¬ 
ably adorned to multitudes who are in rags and tatters. 
The saddest-looking people are the Mohammedan women 
who cover their heads with a white texture and the lower 
part of the face with a thin gauze, through which they 
breathe, allowing only the eyes and part of the forehead 
to be exposed. 

The mission in North Africa is remarkable for its lin¬ 
guistic ability. The twenty Christian workers present spoke 
from two to five languages each. 

A reception given by Dr. and Mrs. Frease was attended 
by about seventy people, representing several Protestant 
missions and churches, and among the guests was the ex¬ 
queen of Madagascar, who was deposed by France in 1897 
and banished to Algiers, where she was residing at the 
expense of the French government. 

During the reception hymns were sung in English, 
French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Kabyle, and Gujarati, 
the last named being a language of western India. On 
Sabbath morning the mission worshiped with the congre¬ 
gation of the Scotch Presbyterian Church and the sermon 
was delivered by Bishop Hartzell. The writer preached in 
our Mission Hall at 3.30 p. m. The mission adjourned on 
Monday, April 4, after the ordination of Brothers Purdon, 
Smith, and Lochhead. 
























































































































NORTH AFRICA 


297 


other foreigners, and 15,000 Jews. In Tunis there are 
about 50,000 Jews, 55,000 Italians, and 15,000 French. 
Some of the smaller towns are almost wholly European, 
but the Moslem population outnumbers all others combined, 
totaling about 5,000,000. 

The French language is dominant in business and social 
life, but various other languages are heard. The Kabyle, 
Moorish, Arabic, English, etc., are all spoken. There are 
seen on the streets all classes, from the richly and fashion¬ 
ably adorned to multitudes who are in rags and tatters. 
The saddest-looking people are the Mohammedan women 
who cover their heads with a white texture and the lower 
part of the face with a thin gauze, through which they 
breathe, allowing only the eyes and part of the forehead 
to be exposed. 

The mission in North Africa is remarkable for its lin¬ 
guistic ability. The twenty Christian workers present spoke 
from two to five languages each. 

A reception given by Dr. and Mrs. Frease was attended 
by about seventy people, representing several Protestant 
missions and churches, and among the guests was the ex¬ 
queen of Madagascar, who was deposed by France in 1897 
and banished to Algiers, where she was residing at the 
expense of the French government. 

During the reception hymns were sung in English, 
French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Kabyle, and Gujarati, 
the last named being a language of western India. On 
Sabbath morning the mission worshiped with the congre¬ 
gation of the Scotch Presbyterian Church and the sermon 
was delivered by Bishop Hartzell. The writer preached in 
our Mission Hall at 3.30 p. m. The mission adjourned on 
Monday, April 4, after the ordination of Brothers Purdon, 
Smith, and Lochhead. 


298 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Constantine 

The route from Algiers to Constantine by rail lies along 
the foothills of the Atlas Mountains and on the way for 
an hour or more at an elevation where the landscape was 
covered with snow. The inhabitants along the route are 
Arabs mainly, and they live usually in wretched hovels. 
Although the country is rich in agricultural and mineral 
resources, the common people are in poverty. Here, as 
everywhere, Mohammedanism consigns its votaries to a low 
grade of civilization. 

Constantine was taken by the French in 1837, an d since 
that date has been a province of France. During its long 
history this city, known in ancient times as Cirta, has been 
besieged and captured eighty times. Its location is at once 
picturesque and unique. It stands two thousand feet above 
the sea level on a foundation of solid rock, closed in on 
three sides by the river Rumel, rushing on its boisterous way 
to the sea. The dwellings of the people line the yawning 
chasm with a perpendicular depth of a thousand feet which 
divides the city. Here Roman antiquities abound. Ar¬ 
chaeologists say that antiquities are more numerous in this 
vicinity than in Rome. 


, Visit to a Mosque 

Mrs. Fisher, of our party, gives the following account of 
a visit to a Mohammedan mosque: 

Through the good offices of two people we knew, long-time residents 
of Constantine, we were inducted into a most rare and unusual experi¬ 
ence. This was no less a happening than, after passing a number of the 
followers of the Prophet in the performance of the necessary ablutions 
at the most modern-looking watertaps in the garden of the mosque, 
we climbed the narrow, winding stairs leading up to the minaret of the 
Mosque de la Place du Caravanserail, the finest and most ornately 


NORTH AFRICA 


299 


sumptuous in all Constantine. And there, “Christian dogs” though we 
were, we stood awaiting the coming of the muezzin, who should, from 
that holy height up against the very blue of the sky itself, call the 
faithful to prayer. We heard the sound of his footsteps presently, 
and then he issued forth from the tiny door which pierced the solid 
stone of the tower, bestowed upon us but a glance, kindly withal, and 
exactly as the sun set, his cry, echoed from myriads of mosques all 
over the Mohammedan world, went winging its way on the breeze of 
the evening to the dwellers in the street below. 

The yellow African sun was sinking beyond the distant hills as we 
stood there upon the balcony of the minaret that day. Below us and 
on every side—the mosque must have been near the center of the city 
—myriads of low Oriental houses, of an architecture unchanged from 
ancient times, with their tiled roofs of mellowed reds and browns, lay 
lazily hugging the rolling contour of the ground. 

Through the narrow, tortuous streets glided as silently as a dream 
the veiled women and the stalwart, white-robed figures of ’the dusky 
Arabs. Far down below us, in the Jewish quarter, the dirty children 
were still brawling in the streets and voluminous Jewish ladies were 
taking the air. The sunset light, slanting through the rock-ribbed 
gorge, touched with gold and gray the ruins of the Roman aqueduct 
over beyond the city. And over and above and enveloping all hung that 
thing, visible, yet perfectly, almost uncannily tangible to our Occidental 
senses—that veil of mystery, which must forever enfold and obscure 
the elusive spirit of the Orient. The cry of the Arab muezzin stand¬ 
ing there beside us rose in a minor wail upon the evening air: “God 
is most great. I testify that there is no God but God. I testify that 
Mohammed is the apostle of God. Come to prayer 1 Come to pros¬ 
perity! God is most great. There is no God but God.” To the north, 
to the south, to the east, to the west, he sent forth the solemn summons 
in the hush of the dying day. 

When it was ended, silently the muezzin glided through the tiny 
door in the minaret and was lost in the darkness within. Silently we 
too a little later retraced our steps down the narrow, winding stair. 
We paused but a moment in the mosque where our muezzin was lead¬ 
ing the few who had gathered there in prayer. There were old men 
who knelt in the row of the prayerfully minded, to whom the numerous 
protestations and genuflections required in the telling of their beads 
was evidently a painful effort. It seemed a case of “words, words, 
words”—these prayers—and of “vain repetitions.” What rest to a weary 
heart could be found by repeating over and over the ninety-nine “most 
beautiful names of God,” upon the beads of a Mohammedan rosary? 
Yet these men were old. Their beards were long and white. Their 


3 °° 


THE STONE OF HELP 


faces were marked with furrows and seams which human experience 
and sorrow, as well as age, had left. 

And of Sidi Mustefa, the muezzin? No more does this Arab, with 
the clean-cut features and intelligent eyes, call to prayer from the 
minaret of the Mosque de la Place du Caravanserail. No more does 
he descend from it to lead the faithful in the prayers. Before our 
glimpse of him that April afternoon Sidi Mustefa had heard of a 
faith that meant more, infinitely more, than that cruel, heartless, soul¬ 
withering thing called Mohammedanism. It was something that called 
to glowing love and light and peace and hope from the Greater Prophet 
than Mohammed, and the soul of the muezzin had risen within him 
and called back in glad response. Perchance that very April afternoon 
he was thinking it must surely end soon—this vocation of his which 
no longer held his heart. 

So closed our day. 

Carthage 

Arriving at Tunis, a Mohammedan city with a population 
of about two hundred thousand, since occupied as a mission 
center, and finding that we had a day at our disposal, we 
decided to visit the site of ancient Carthage, a few miles to 
the northeast. We were so fortunate as to secure the guid¬ 
ance of the Rev. Mr. Flad, who had been rector of the 
Church of England in Tunis for twenty-two years and had 
made a special study of old Carthage. 

It is said that the city was founded B. C. 900. As early 
as B. C. 600 it was one of the largest and most flourishing 
cities of antiquity. As the centuries passed, it was the scene 
of many bloody conflicts, and was captured many times by 
ambitious military leaders and was finally destroyed and 
buried. But its grave is being opened by the pick and shovel 
of the archaeologist. The foundations and ruins of several 
edifices of great antiquity have already been uncovered. 
The great coliseum, where the Roman games were played 
and gladiators fought and Christians were thrown to the 
tigers and lions; the basilica, where Christians worshiped; 
the theater, where plays were performed for the amusement 


EUROPE 


301 


of the multitude and where orations were delivered, have 
been exhumed and the work has only begun. A large 
museum has been erected in which works of art consisting 
of statuary and a great variety of antiquities are on exhi¬ 
bition. 


CHAPTER XXXVIII 


EUROPE—1910 

Having completed the visitation of the North Africa 
Mission we sailed from Tunis, April 6, for Naples, Italy, 
where we arrived in the early morning of April 8 and at 
6 p. m. the same day we reached Rome, where we were 
most cordially welcomed by Drs. Walling Clark, B. M. 
Tipple, and Professor Spencer and escorted to our mission 
building in which we were delightfully entertained by Dr. 
and Mrs. Clark. 

A Sensation 

The Fairbanks incident had but recently transpired, and 
had produced a profound sensation not only in Rome but 
throughout Europe and America. Ex-Vice-President Fair¬ 
banks when in Rome accepted an invitation to address a 
congregation in our Methodist Episcopal edifice at a regular 
Sabbath service, which so offended the pope that he denied 
Mr. Fairbanks an audience. In America Archbishop Ire¬ 
land hastened to the defense of his ecclesiastical master, 
saying: “It is not a question of Mr. Fairbanks going to a 
Methodist Church in Rome for Sunday devotions. It was 
a question of appearing to give the fullest approval of the 
work of the Methodist Association in Rome.” That is, if 
Mr. Fairbanks had slipped into his own denominational 
place of worship in Rome by a back door entrance and then 
slipped out again by that same back door without making 
himself known or giving approval to our ecclesiastical exist- 
302 


EUROPE 


303 


ence in Rome, the pope would have graciously granted him 
an audience. Fortunately, that particular American states¬ 
man is not made of the intellectual and moral fiber that 
admits of that sort of obsequiousness. By the manly, digni¬ 
fied course pursued by the ex-Vice-President he honored 
his country, to which he has rendered distinguished service, 
the church, of which he is a loyal member, and himself as 
a citizen of the greatest republic in the world. 

Of course the Methodist Episcopal Church as a whole is 
glad to know that our church in Rome has exerted an influ¬ 
ence so potent as to attract the attention of the pope and 
the Roman hierarchy not only in Italy but also in America. 
The pope evidently knows that we are in Rome, and we 
take pleasure in saying that we are there to stay. It is 
gratifying to know that the attention of the Archbishop 
was attracted to our work in Rome when visiting that city. 
He says: “I was in Rome last winter and I made a very 
particular study of the Methodist propaganda. It has gone 
so far that the Catholics have organized the Society for the 
Preservation of the Faith to fight against it.” This is very 
valuable testimony. If Bishop Burt had reported that our 
church was so influential as to cause anxiety to the Vatican, 
and that the hierarchy was alarmed, and that a special so¬ 
ciety was organized to counteract and neutralize our aggres¬ 
sions, there might have been some Methodists even who 
would have regarded it as an overstatement of existing 
facts. But when Archbishop Ireland gives such testimony 
everybody is likely to sit up and take notice. If our workers 
are so aggressive and successful as to justify the epithet 
“pernicious proselyters” from the Archbishop’s viewpoint, 
then certainly something is doing. Besides, the very same 
thing charged against us in Rome may be charged against 
Roman Catholics in America. It is well known that when 


304 


THE STONE OF HELP 


the Paulist Fathers hold their missions in this country they 
urge every member of their church to bring at least one 
Protestant to each service. If Methodists in Rome are 
“pernicious proselyters,” what are the Paulist Fathers in 
New York and other American cities? Besides, Methodists 
have the same right to be in Rome that Roman Catholics 
have to be in New York. No doubt the Roman pontiff 
would expel all Methodists from Italy if he had the power, 
and he would do the same thing in America. 

By his manly and honorable conduct in Rome, ex-Vice- 
President Fairbanks unintentionally brought to the fore 
the arrogance of the Roman hierarchy as it has not been 
done for a long period of time. 

Another Sensation 

Two days previous to our arrival in Rome ex-President 
Roosevelt had taken his departure, but the sensation pro¬ 
duced by the snub he had administered to the pope and the 
Methodists was still intense. It is important to put on 
record the actual facts as they had just transpired. The 
writer has in his possession a statement made by one who 
was on the ground and had first-hand knowledge of all that 
happened. 

Ex-President Roosevelt flatly refused to visit the pope 
because there were limitations and conditions imposed, to 
which he would not consent, namely, that he would not 
accept an invitation to visit our Methodist institutions. Be¬ 
fore the arrival of Mr. Roosevelt, having in mind probably 
the excitement caused by the Fairbanks incident and the 
position assumed by the Roman Catholic authorities, Mr. 
Leishman, the American ambassador to Italy, assured our 
Methodist people that he would arrange for them an inter¬ 
view with the distinguished visitor at the earliest possible 


EUROPE 


305 


moment. Mr. Roosevelt arrived in Rome on Sunday eve- 
ning. He was presented to the king on Monday morning. 
On Monday afternoon, at half-past two o’clock, among the 
very first to be received were Drs. Clark and Tipple and 
Professor Spencer. The reception took place in the apart¬ 
ments of the ambassador. By the advice of the ambassador, 
no invitation was extended to Mr. Roosevelt to visit our 
institutions, as it was thought that it might cause some 
embarrassment, which proved to be very wise, as the Vatican 
authorities said in attempting to justify their insult that they 
supposed the invitation had been extended; hence their 
conditions imposed upon Mr. Roosevelt. Before leaving 
they were informed that a reception would be given on the 
following Wednesday at three o’clock, and they with their 
wives and the heads of the various Methodist institutions 
were invited to attend. At the close of the interview our 
brethren were delighted, being certain that our cause would 
not suffer at the hands of the ex-President. Unfortunately, 
a letter was wired from Rome to New York on Monday 
afternoon, and was published in the Monday evening papers 
and also in the morning papers of Tuesday (every word 
of which was true), was promptly wired back to Rome, 
and which greatly incensed Mr. Roosevelt, who immediately 
dictated a dispatch to the Associated Press in which he 
stated that, under the circumstances, he had requested the 
American ambassador not to hold the reception which had 
been announced for Wednesday. However, the reception 
was held, and was attended by about two hundred and fifty 
Americans, but the Methodist contingent was counted out. 
Meantime the papers announced in bold headlines that Mr. 
Roosevelt had administered a snub to the Methodists, which 
caused considerable excitement among the Italians who had 
supposed our position was assured. Taking the incident 


306 


THE STONE OF HELP 


as a whole, it had the appearance of an effort on the part 
of the ex-President to take the center of the stage, as is his 
wont, and proclaim himself as being impartial by smiting 
the pope with one fist and the Methodists with the other 
and by so doing secure the applause of the crowd. 

Through Southern Europe 

Leaving Rome, I entered upon my second visitation of 
our European Conferences and missions, the first having 
been made in 1901, since which there had been a steady 
advance in all the countries where our work had been estab¬ 
lished. What follows refers to the situation as I saw it 
in 1910. 

Having been requested to join Bishop Burt in Constanti¬ 
nople, we journeyed by rail to Brindisi, in southern Italy, 
and thence by steamer through the iEgean Sea and the 
Dardanelles, which divide between Europe and Asia. Our 
ship crossed the track of the small boat upon which Saint 
Paul and Silas sailed from Troas to Macedonia. From the 
deck of our ship could be seen, with the aid of a field glass, 
a half dozen columns of temples of old Corinth that were 
in their glory in Saint Paul’s day, and also the modern city 
of Corinth, which has none of the grandeur or greatness 
of the older city. Our ship stopped four and one half hours 
at Piraeus, a city of probably seventy-five thousand and the 
seaport city of Athens, six miles distant. An electric rail¬ 
way connects the two towns and the trip is made in about 
thirty minutes. Could it be that we were really in Athens 
—the city that represented the highest civilization the world 
could boast two thousand years ago—a city of all that was 
grandest in art, literature, philosophy, and oratory? In 
the brief time at our command we visited the most impor¬ 
tant points in the city, including the Acropolis and the 


EUROPE 


307 


other wonderful ruins on the outskirts. Of course we 
ascended Mar’s Hill and stood on or near the spot where 
Paul delivered his great address (Acts 17) proclaiming 
unto the Athenians the “God that made the world and all 
things therein,” whom they “ignorantly worshiped.” The 
city itself was not disappointing. After having seen many 
of the cities of the world, the writer is prepared to say that 
Athens is the most beautiful of all. The contrast between 
Athens and Constantinople could scarcely be greater. The 
former is beautiful in location and architecture, clean and 
white, being built almost wholly of marble; while the latter, 
though splendidly located, its buildings, except its palaces 
and mosques, are usually inferior and often unsightly, while 
its streets are narrow, filthy, and thronged with dogs. The 
city, standing upon a succession of hills stretching several 
miles along the Bosporus in the form of a crescent, the 
emblem of the Mohammedan religion, has had a marvelous 
history. In A. D. 330 Constantine the Great made Byzan¬ 
tium the capital of the Roman empire, and from that date 
the city has been called Constantinople. It was frequently 
besieged by the Saracens, was taken by the Latins in 1204, 
by Michael Palseologus in 1261, and by the Turks May 29, 
1453, since which time it has been the capital of the Turkish 
empire. 

Piercing the center of the city, curving out from the 
Bosporus, is the Golden Horn, which divides the city into 
two parts. The imperial palace, which was completed in 
1867, is in the style of what is known as the new Turkish 
Renaissance. It is built of marble, is of vast dimensions, 
with a luxury and magnificence in its interior decorations 
and arrangement which are unexcelled in Europe and almost 
surpass belief. Its chief facade, about twenty-four hundred 
feet long, is mirrored in the Bosporus. Here Mohammedan 


THE STONE OF HELP 


308 

mosques are numerous and in some localities forests of 
minarets pierce the sky. We spent an hour in Saint Sophia, 
once a Christian church, but converted into a mosque upon 
the Mohammedan conquest. There are still symbols of the 
Christian faith on some of its walls. Some time Christ will 
be again preached in this long-defamed temple. There 
are places of Christian worship, and in the constitution of 
the Turkish empire now in force freedom of worship is 
allowed. The most noted Christian institution in the city 
is Robert College, splendidly located on a height overlooking 
the Bosporus. Among its students there are always numer¬ 
ous Moslem youths. It is a great lighthouse, sending out 
its rays into the darkness with which it is surrounded. 
Upon invitation of President Gates, Bishop Burt and the 
writer addressed the student body, numbering about three 
hundred, on a Sabbath morning and evening. 

Bulgaria 

Bulgaria, having recently freed herself from the galling 
Turkish yoke she had worn so long, was aspiring to a 
larger place in the arena of Balkan and European politics. 
Her capital city, Sofia, was growing rapidly and at the time 
of our visit claimed a population of one hundred thousand. 
The streets were being paved and an excellent street car 
service had been recently installed. In some parts of the 
country modern agricultural implements were already in 
use and the old indescribable plow and other ancient tools 
were being discarded. The territory of the country is 
about equally divided by the Balkan range of mountains, 
running east and west, and is as beautiful and fertile as 
can be found in Europe. Although the progress of the 
people had been long retarded by warring political factions, 
heavy burdens of taxation, and a tyrannical government, 


EUROPE 


309 


there were, since the Turkish yoke had been broken, signs 
of progress that were very encouraging. Special attention 
was being given to a public free school system and facilities 
of excellent quality were already provided. In Tirnova 
there were two splendid gymnasiums, one for boys and one 
for girls, erected by the government at a cost of $200,000, 
with a total attendance of eighteen hundred. Parents that 
were able to do so were required to pay a small fee, while 
the children of the poor were not only admitted free but 
were furnished one meal a day without cost. There was a 
strong movement going forward in favor of separation 
between church and state, notwithstanding the opposition 
of the hierarchy of the orthodox Greek Church. Disestab¬ 
lishment in the republic of France was powerfully influenc¬ 
ing Bulgaria in the same direction. During two or three 
months twenty thousand copies of the New Testament had 
been sold, and there was a growing demand for Christian 
literature of the evangelical type. 

The Bulgaria Mission Conference 

The Bulgaria Mission Conference met in Tirnova, the 
ancient capital of the country, April 21, 1910, Bishop 
William Burt presiding. The city is picturesquely situated 
on both sides of a deep ravine, along which flows a turbulent 
river. Many of the houses are built terrace form on the 
hillsides. The Conference session was held in our church, 
located on a hillside, and would seat about two hundred 
people. There was a lecture room adjoining which would 
provide for fifty more; but both were inadequate to accom¬ 
modate the people. At the evening services and on the 
Sabbath the aisle and vestibule were filled and a considerable 
number could not gain admittance. Several priests of the 


3 IQ 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Greek Church attended the Conference sessions and the 
public services, and some of them gave expression to the 
deep interest they felt in what they saw and heard. 

At that time Bulgaria seemed to be at the dawn of a 
brighter day politically and religiously than she had ever 
enjoyed. Our preachers went out to take up their work 
with higher and brighter hopes than they had ever in¬ 
dulged. How little did they know of the terrible experi¬ 
ences through which they and their people were so soon 
to pass! The great Balkan War of 1912 and 1913 was soon 
to break forth, in which Bulgaria was doomed to be the 
greatest sufferer. 


CHAPTER XXXIX 


ALONG THE BEAUTIFUL DANUBE 

There is a constant rise in the material and moral condi¬ 
tions of the people as one journeys northward from Con¬ 
stantinople through Macedonia, Bulgaria, Roumania, Hun¬ 
gary, and Austria. Constantinople is Mohammedan pre¬ 
dominantly in population and morals. As Mohammedans 
become less numerous the grade of civilization and material 
prosperity rises. Among the capital cities of Europe, 
Bucharest, of Roumania, with a population of over two 
hundred thousand, bears the unenviable reputation of being 
the most immoral. Its buildings, public and private, are 
generally ornamented with stucco which gives them a gaudy 
appearance. The state religion is Greek Catholic and is 
ironclad. There is no such thing in Roumania as toleration 
or freedom of worship. The country is beautiful and fertile 
and is worthy of a better capital city and a higher type of 
the Christian religion. 

Budapest 

Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, has a population of 
eight hundred thousand, is splendidly situated on both sides 
of the Danube, is substantially built, and many of its busi¬ 
ness houses and public edifices are elegant architecturally. 
The Parliament building, located on the east bank of the 
Danube, is a noble structure. The king’s palace, standing 
on a high bluff on the west bank of the Danube, is one of 
the many magnificent royal residences of Europe. His 


312 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Majesty Francis Joseph, now eighty-four years old, enjoys 
the distinction of being both emperor and king—emperor of 
Austria and king of Hungary—and is known as the em¬ 
peror-king. He visits Budapest once a year and remains 
about two weeks. During fifty weeks of the year the splen¬ 
did palace never echoes to the footsteps of its royal owner. 
This palace was erected by the Hungarian people at a cost 
of $15,000,000. It is luxuriously furnished throughout. 
One piece of tapestry—of which there are many—cost 
$200,000. Eight chairs in one room, upholstered with 
tapestry, cost $48,000. These chairs are a part of the 
furnishing of a suite of twelve rooms occupied by the king 
and queen of Spain during a visit of two days—the only 
guests who have ever occupied them. There is a suite of 
rooms held sacred to the memory of Queen Elizabeth, who 
was assassinated in Geneva, Switzerland, seventeen years 
ago. In one room there is a life-size statue of the queen 
in marble, and in another she is in marble, sleeping and 
supposed to be dreaming. She is represented by portraits 
and photos from girlhood to the sad termination of her 
most unhappy life. The costume worn when the fatal 
stab was given is seen, and the slit in the bodice shows the 
spot where the assassin’s blade entered. 

Thirteen years ago the Methodist Episcopal Church was 
founded in Hungary and we now have twenty-nine congre¬ 
gations. In 1911 the work was organized into a Mission 
Conference. It was my privilege to preach on a week day 
evening at a joint service and was interpreted into German 
by Pastor Melle. The Hungarian pastor took notes and 
announced that on the following Monday evening he would 
give his people the substance of the sermon. Hungary 
enjoys religious liberty which is greatly to her advantage. 
There are, however, several denominations that are largely 


ALONG THE BEAUTIFUL DANUBE 313 

supported by state funds, namely, Roman Catholic, Luthe¬ 
ran, Calvinist, and Hebrew. The Roman Catholic Church 
is the largest, richest, and most influential. The bishops 
hold vast tracts of land, for which the peasantry pay ex¬ 
orbitant rentals. They also own immense properties in the 
cities and towns which provide large revenues. 

Vienna 

Vienna, the capital of Austria, has a population esti¬ 
mated at two million and is a splendid city. It is built on 
both sides of the Danube, which separates it into two un¬ 
equal parts. It is generously provided with parks and open 
spaces, which are beautifully ornamented with a great 
variety of trees and a profusion of flowers. The Prater is 
known as the Hyde Park of Vienna. To these parks the 
people of all ages and conditions flock daily by thousands, 
and find not only recreation and amusement but health as 
well. The palace is an extensive structure of plain exterior 
but elegantly decorated and furnished within. We were 
admitted to the royal treasury, where the crown jewels were 
on exhibition. Here are the bejeweled crowns of Francis 
Joseph and the late Queen Elizabeth. The crown of the 
queen cost $600,000 and the cost of the emperor’s was an 
equal sum, the total cost having been not less than $1,200,- 
000. Here are various supposed relics framed in gold and 
lavishly ornamented with costly jewels—a tooth of John 
the Baptist; piece of the apron worn by Jesus when he 
washed the disciples’ feet; piece of the cloth that covered 
the table at the passover supper; a bit of wood from the 
manger at Bethlehem; a nail from the cross on which Jesus 
was crucified, and a piece of bone from the arm of Saint 
Ann. There is also a great variety of royal vestments and 
trappings. 


314 


THE STONE OF HELP 


In Vienna is Saint Stephen’s Church, of pure Gothic 
architecture, founded in the fifteenth century and the great¬ 
est in Austria. Among many other objects of veneration 
and worship is a picture of the Virgin Mother garlanded 
with flowers, before which an ever-changing group of wor¬ 
shipers were bowed and numerous candles flamed. Many 
kissed the glass plate that covered the picture, and crossing 
themselves went their way. Here were maidens praying 
that they might find husbands, and young men that they 
might find wives. Husbands and wives were praying that 
they might be blessed with children. Looking upon these 
devout worshipers, I could not suppress the question: If 
this is not idolatry, what is it? In the Church of Capuchins 
the sarcophagi of the royal dead to the number of one 
hundred and thirty-two were seen. Here sleeps the mis¬ 
guided, unfortunate Maximilian, who attempted to establish 
a throne in Mexico. 

Methodism was founded in Vienna forty years ago by 
English Wesleyans and was taken over by the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in 1897. Baroness Von Langenau in the 
same year gave a fine building to our church, eligibly 
located in Vienna, which gives permanence to our work. 
It provides a home for several deaconesses, a commodious 
chapel for church services, and apartments which are rented 
to families and which provide a considerable income. Our 
church is greatly handicapped by the illiberal laws of Aus¬ 
tria. Only churches recognized by the state can legally hold 
public religious services. The churches so recognized are 
the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, and Moham¬ 
medan. 

Since the Mohammedan provinces of Herzegovina and 
Bosnia were forcibly annexed to Austria, the Mohammedan 
religion has been recognized and now stands as the equal, 


ALONG THE BEAUTIFUL DANUBE 315 

in the legal sense, of the other churches above named. The 
law allows other religious Services to be held by families 
only behind closed doors. We now have two Methodist 
Episcopal churches in Vienna, and according to the letter 
of the law our services are illegal. Complaint has been 
made by the Roman Catholics to the authorities, who thus 
far have deferred a decision. Our people claim that they do 
not violate the spirit of the law, for the reason that the con¬ 
gregations are made up of a union of families and consist 
only of specially invited worshipers. On the doors of our 
places of worship is inscribed, “Only invited persons can 
enter. ,, A person wishing to unite with us must go to the 
proper state authority and put himself on record as with¬ 
drawing from a state church with which he has been identi¬ 
fied, after which he is classed with persons who have no 
religion. The only easy way to get out of a state church in 
Austria is to die. In Vienna we have about two hundred 
and fifty members, but there are many who regularly wor¬ 
ship with our congregations who have not severed their legal 
connection with state churches. I preached in our First 
Church, Vienna, through an interpreter, to a congregation 
that filled our commodious chapel. At the close of the 
sermon the holy communion was celebrated, nearly every 
person present participating, and a more spiritual and im¬ 
pressive communion service it has not been my privilege to 
witness. \V\5re freedom of worship permitted in Austria, 
the Methodist Episcopal Church would achieve far larger 
results than are possible under existing circumstances. 


CHAPTER XL 


ITALY AND FRANCE 

Florence, with a population of about two hundred thou¬ 
sand, is one of the many interesting and important cities of 
Italy. It is often called the Athens of Italy, for the reason 
that it is the cradle of art and civilization in that country. 
It is situated in a beautiful valley surrounded by green 
hills and is divided into two unequal parts by the river 
Arno. The walls that were four times extended as the 
city grew, were in a great measure destroyed between 1865 
and 1868. The city is well built, and its streets, which 
are usually narrow, are paved with slabs of stone. There 
are six bridges that connect the banks of the Arno. Here 
Galileo was born and here is the house in which Michael 
Angelo resided. In the Museum is his world-renowned 
statue of David, carved, it is said, from a block of marble 
which was supposed to have been spoiled and discarded by 
another artist. In this city Dante was born and here Giro¬ 
lamo Savonarola was hung and burned. It was my privi¬ 
lege to visit the cell in the monastery in which he lived for 
many years. 

The Italy Conference 

In this city the Italy Conference held its annual session 
May 4-9, 1910, with Bishop William Burt in the chair. 
The Fairbanks and Roosevelt incidents had brought the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in Italy under the limelight 
and had given it a position not previously attained. It 
should be remembered that a large number of Italian people 
316 


ITALY AND FRANCE 


3i7 


are thoroughly and forever alienated from the Roman 
Catholic Church, and reconciliation is impossible. The 
Vatican may continue to tearfully proclaim its affection for 
its dear children, but multitudes only sneer at its pre¬ 
tensions. As an illustration of public sentiment toward the 
Roman hierarchy it is only necessary to call attention to 
the great demonstration made annually in Rome commemo¬ 
rating the martyrdom of the reformer, Giordano Bruno, 
February 17, 1600, when many thousands of people march 
the streets of the city displaying banners upon which are 
inscribed “Down with the Pope,” “Down with the Hier¬ 
archy,” and others of like import. The monument that 
marks the spot where Giordano Bruno was burned at the 
stake, by order of the pope, stands as a silent but tremen¬ 
dous protest against the whole Vatican system. That the 
Vatican is arrayed against the king of Italy the whole 
world knows. It is also true that the masses of the people 
are with the king and in favor of the unity of Italy. The 
pope may continue to regard himself as a prisoner and to 
long for the time when he will have a temporal kingdom of 
his own, but the Italian people have decided that the tem¬ 
poral power of the papacy is a thing of the past. The 
breach between the Vatican and the people grows wider 
every year and will never be closed. The Fairbanks-Roose- 
velt incidents, accentuated and emphasized that breach, 
which has become an impassable gulf. Unless Protestant¬ 
ism comes to the rescue, the Italians will become a nation 
of materialists and atheists. At present the serious-minded 
people who have not given up their faith in God, though 
they have lost all faith in the Roman hierarchy, are turning 
their thoughts to the Methodist Episcopal Church as the 
leading evangelistic force of the country. The fact that 
the Vatican guns are turned upon us only serves to 


THE STONE OF HELP 


3i8 

strengthen our position. It surely was providential guid¬ 
ance that directed the planting of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in Italy in 1873, that it might have time to take 
root and be prepared for the struggle that has since been 
precipitated. If Methodism fails to gird itself for the 
battle, the cause of evangelical Christianity will be set back 
by decades. Not that Methodism is the only evangelical 
force in Italy, but it is now singled out as one of the 
special objects of wrath of the papal authorities and 
its defeat would greatly weaken every other evangelical 
agency. 

The French Mission 

This mission was founded in 1907, held its third annual 
meeting in Lyon, May 12-15, I 9 IO > and was organized into 
a Mission Conference under the enabling act adopted by 
the General Conference of 1908. The territory covered 
lies in the southeastern part of France. We have not 
entered any place occupied by the Wesleyans. It must be 
admitted that the Wesleyan Methodist Church in France 
has not been earnestly aggressive in its movements. It has 
been at work there fifty years and has a membership of not 
over two thousand. Our coming is heartily welcomed by 
the Wesleyan body. The president of their Conference 
came as a fraternal messenger to our Conference and 
brought brotherly greetings and a hearty welcome. He 
proposed cooperation on the part of the two Methodist 
bodies, declaring that there is abundant room for and great 
need of both. It was also suggested that the two bodies 
might some time become one. 

France? 

Is not France a Christian nation? Yes, and no. The 
Roman Catholic Church has no doubt done much for 


ITALY AND FRANCE 


3i9 


France, lifting her far above paganism in her civilization, 
but unable to give her a genuine Christian experience and 
true Christian ideals. Spiritually France is stranded—run 
aground—and is in imminent danger of spiritual shipwreck. 
The people, weary of being offered a stone when they 
needed bread, have on a tremendous scale repudiated the 
Roman Church, and if not turned atheists and materialists, 
they are not in a scriptural sense religious. The president 
of the Wesleyan Conference in an address stated that of 
the thirty-eight million people in France, thirty-five million 
have never heard the gospel appeal. If France is saved 
from irreligion, it must be through Protestant evangeliza¬ 
tion. The masses who have broken away from Rome do 
not possess the vitalizing spiritual life needed. The French 
are a splendid people and ought not to be permitted to 
grope in the spiritual gloom with which they are now en¬ 
veloped. The Macedonian call, “Come over and help us,” 
should meet with a prompt response from American Protes¬ 
tantism. 


CHAPTER XLI 


SWITZERLAND AND GERMANY 

Switzerland is at her best in May, and her best is 
probably unsurpassed by any other country in the world. 
What beautiful landscapes, picturesque valleys, undulating 
hills and majestic mountains! And these clothed with a 
wealth of foliage and flowers that cannot be adequately 
described. Then there are sparkling fountains, leaping 
cascades, plunging cataracts, and transparent, shimmering 
lakes that are plentifully supplied by the melting snows of 
the mountains. 

Switzerland is a republic, and one who was born and bred 
in “the land of the free” feels more at home here than in 
any other European country. After having journeyed 
through Turkey, Bulgaria, Roumania, Austria-Hungary, 
Italy, Germany, England, and Scandinavia, where the 
escutcheons of royalty are always visible, it is refreshing 
to be in a country where there is no king or emperor and 
where all are equal citizens and character determines rank. 

Methodism in Switzerland 

Switzerland is one of the small countries of Europe, 
having an area of only fifteen thousand nine hundred and 
eighty-four square miles and a population of about three 
million. Zurich, the capital of the cantonment, is situated 
at the outflow of the beautiful Lake Zurich, and has a popu- 
320 


SWITZERLAND AND GERMANY 


3 21 


lation of about one hundred and fifty-five thousand and 
is the place of residence of the bishop having charge of 
our European Episcopal Area. 

Here the Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in 
1856. At first and for many years our people struggled 
against the limitations and prejudices that always prevail 
in a country where a state church exists. Gradually the 
limitations have been removed and the prejudices have 
given way, until at present religious liberty and freedom of 
worship prevail. 

The Switzerland Conference met in the ancient city of 
Basel on the Rhine, May 18-23, 1910. The business was 
conducted in an orderly manner and with a dignity that 
commands respect. The social aspects of the Conference 
were unique. According to the European custom, the early 
morning meal consists of coffee and rolls. Conference 
opens at 8130 a . m . At 10 a . m . tea is served in the lecture 
room; at 1 p . m . a generous lunch is served, which is inter¬ 
spersed with singing and brief addresses. Here the Con¬ 
ference choir is in evidence. The name of the leader is 
Lark and the name fits the man. As the meal is served, the 
choir renders an occasional song or hymn, the harmony 
of which thrills even those who do not understand the lan¬ 
guage in which they atfe written. 

Sunday was the great day of the Conference. The 
church in which the Conference was held not being large 
enough to accommodate the people, a public hall was secured 
that will hold two thousand people. At the forenoon serv¬ 
ice, when Bishop Burt preached, and in the afternoon, when 
a religious concert was given by the Conference choir and 
choirs from the adjacent towns, each led by its own choir¬ 
master, the hall was crowded to the limit. Interspersed in 
the program of music, brief addresses were delivered. The 


322 


THE STONE OF HELP 


crowds that attended these public services indicate the high 
esteem in which our church is held by the people. 

The German Empire 

The German empire consists of a union of the Germanic 
states. The distance from east to west and from north 
to south is about equal and the total area is two hundred 
and eleven thousand square miles. The agricultural re¬ 
sources are immense and its mineral resources scarcely less. 
The population is estimated at sixty-five million, and con¬ 
sists mainly of German-speaking people, with some Slavs 
and Danes on the eastern and northern borders and in the 
south some of Romanic origin. It is estimated that about 
two thirds of the people are Protestant and one third 
Roman Catholic. 

The progress of Germany in agriculture, manufacture, 
commerce, and in military and naval equipment since 1871 
has been phenomenal. Traveling through the empire, one 
is impressed with the splendid equipment of her railroads, 
while her ships of commerce and of war sail all the seas. 
In a word, Germany is a great world power for better or 
for worse. Traveling through the German empire, one 
is favorably impressed with the thrift and prosperity of 
the people. Great manufacturing centers are numerous and 
the output of the factories is immense. Agriculture is 
flourishing under an intensive system of farming, although 
in some parts agricultural implements and methods are 
somewhat primitive. The shops and fields are deprived 
constantly of the labor of more than one million men who 
are in the barracks. This great standing army must be fed, 
clothed, and sheltered at a vast expense by the people. The 
barracks and the factories require so large a number of men 


SWITZERLAND AND GERMANY 


323 


that the fields must be cultivated and the harvests gathered 
largely by women and children. Surely, this is unnatural 
as well as un-Christian. 


South Germany Conference 

The Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in Ger¬ 
many in 1849 by L. S. Jacoby, D.D., who preached his first 
sermon in a small town about twenty miles from Bremen. 
On Easter Sunday, 1850, a class was organized in Bremen, 
consisting of twenty-one persons. This was the beginning 
of a work that has spread over Germany and Switzerland. 
In 1893 Germany was divided into two Conferences, desig¬ 
nated North Germany Conference and South Germany Con¬ 
ference. The latter held its annual session in Freudenstadt, 
June 1-6, 1910. 


North Germany Conference 

North Germany Conference met in Bremen June 1-6, 
1910. Here Methodism was planted sixty-one years ago, 
and here one naturally recalls the heroic service rendered 
by L. S. Jacoby, D.D., the Rev. C. H. Doering, the Rev. 
Louis Nippert, the Rev. t. Riemenschneider, and the Rev. 
H. Nuelsen, father of Bishop J. L. Nuelsen. The city has 
a population of about two hundred and fifty thousand and 
is one of many flourishing cities in the empire. 

The business programs and the religious services of the 
two Conferences in the German empire are substantially the 
same as in Switzerland. The missionary anniversary was 
held in the building in which Dr. Jacoby preached his first 
sermon. The hall, which accommodates about five hundred 
people, was quite full, and the writer made the address 


3 2 4 


THE STONE OF HELP 


through the brain and tongue of Dr. Junker, the president 
of our theological school at Frankfort. 

Methodism in Germany 

The Methodist Episcopal Church is deeply and firmly 
rooted in Germany and is destined to exert an ever-widen¬ 
ing and potential influence upon the moral and religious 
life of the people. Already its presence as a spiritual force 
is felt and recognized. Dr. Robert Kuebel, of Tubingen, 
says: “Soon Methodism will be in evangelical Christendom 
the same dominating power that Jesuitism is in the Roman 
Catholic Church. Its chief blessing to us is that by its com¬ 
petition our church and clergymen have been awakened 
from sleep and made to work with an earnestness unknown 
for years. All honor to those zealous to do good and to 
save men: and that such a zeal now prevails among us we 
owe chiefly to Methodism.” 

Professor Harnack has said: “Among the different reli¬ 
gious currents none interests me more than Methodism. If 
I have read church history aright, your denomination, since 
the time of the Reformation, has been the richest in Chris¬ 
tian experience, the most active in Christian work, and the 
most fruitful in results.” 

Many other high authorities might be quoted, giving like 
testimony to the effectiveness of our doctrines and methods. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church has long since passed 
beyond the stage of experiment on the continent of Europe 
and is now recognized as a permanent and potent force in 
the religious life of the Continent. 

There are two institutions, one in North Germany and 
the other in South Germany Conference, that deserve special 
mention: the Theological School at Frankfort, in the south, 
and the Methodist Publishing House at Bremen, in the 


SWITZERLAND AND GERMANY 325 


north. The former educates and trains our ministers for 
Germany and Switzerland. But for this institution we 
would not have the intelligent, well-trained, consecrated 
preachers who now serve our churches in both these coun¬ 
tries. The latter furnishes our preachers and people with 
religious literature, is growing in resources and usefulness, 
and is an important source of revenue for our growing work 
in the German empire. 


CHAPTER XLII 


SCANDINAVIA 

Denmark 

Denmark is one of the small countries of Europe, hav¬ 
ing an area of thirteen thousand seven hundred and eighty- 
four square miles and a population of about three million. 
The country lacks picturesqueness, its highest elevation 
above sea level being only five hundred and sixty feet. 

The Danes do not forget the injustice perpetrated by 
their German neighbors in robbing them, as they claim, of 
Schleswig-Holstein in the war of 1864, and which they 
hope will yet be restored by the intervention of the powers 
in the not distant future. 

Copenhagen 

Copenhagen, the capital, has a population of over five 
hundred thousand, and is growing rapidly. The city has a 
good harbor and outlet to the North Sea. The harbor is 
said to be quite strongly fortified, but why the government 
should burden the people with taxes to provide for defense 
it is’difficult to see, since the Danes could not resist for a 
day—hardly for an hour—an attack by any one of the 
principal European powers. Her continuance as an inde¬ 
pendent state depends wholly upon the good will of the 
great powers. 

The city has many attractive and interesting features and 
institutions. Here is “The Church of Our Lady” (Lutheran 
State) in which are the statues in marble of the Christ and 
326 


SCANDINAVIA 


3 2 7 

his apostles, by Thorwaldsen. The statue of the Christ 
stands in a niche at the farther end of the nave, while the 
apostles line the two sides, six on a side. Paul, who takes 
the place of Judas, the traitor, holds the place of honor on 
the right, and the beloved disciple, John, stands on the left. 
It is said that when the great sculptor had completed the 
statue of Christ, he said, “This is my best; now I must 
decline.” 


The Methodist Episcopal Church 

The Methodist Episcopal Church was established in 
Copenhagen in 1857. In 1908 the fiftieth anniversary of 
the delivery of the first sermon by the Rev. C. Willerup 
was celebrated. Bishop Burt conducted the service, and 
there were present the widow of Brother Willerup and the 
first person he baptized and admitted into the church in 
Denmark. On June 8, 1910, the day the writer left Copen¬ 
hagen, Mrs. Willerup passed away from this world to join 
her husband, from whom she had been separated by death 
for many years. 

In 1866, through the generosity of Harold Dollner, a 
Danish merchant of New Yo$k city, Saint Mark’s Church 
was built in Copenhagen and dedicated January 6, 1866. 
This church was for many years the center of a large 
amount of Christian activity. It was what would be called 
in an American city a downtown church, doing settlement 
work under the leadership of the pastor, the Rev. Anton 
Bast. During the winter of 1909-10, thirteen thousand 
seven hundred and eighty-eight meals were served and four 
thousand two hundred and fifty-nine homeless men found 
shelter at night. There was contributed for this work in 
Copenhagen, the sum of about $5,700. It was my privilege 
to deliver a missionary address in this church on a week day 


THE STONE OF HELP 


328 

evening to a congregation estimated by the pastor at four 
hundred. It is a source of deep regret that this church 
edifice has been destroyed by fire. It ought to be and will 
be rebuilt, probably in a more desirable location at an early 
day. 

Denmark Conference 

The Denmark Conference met in Vejle, June 9, 1910. 
The Lord’s Supper was administered in connection with the 
opening service. The congregation was large, and nearly 
all participated. There were twenty-three ministerial mem¬ 
bers in the Conference, which has since been organized into 
an Annual Conference. 

The attendance of the people at the business sessions of 
the Conference was large and at the evening services the 
house was crowded. On the evening of the anniversary 
of the Board of Foreign Missions the house was quite too 
small to accommodate the people who wished to attend. 

In Denmark, as in Switzerland and Germany, the growth 
of the membership of our church does not by any means 
measure the results that have been achieved. Many people 
attend our churches, participate in the services, and take part 
in our work who have not severed their relation with the 
state churches. What is known as the Inner Mission has 
been brought into existence in all these countries to check 
the tendency of the members of the state churches to be¬ 
come members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The 
forms of worship and methods of work in these Inner 
Missions are substantially the same as in our churches. 

Norway 

Norway has an area of one hundred and twenty-three 
thousand square miles, only a small part of which has been 
brought under cultivation. Its winters are long and cold. 


SCANDINAVIA 


329 

During one fourth of the year in the far north the sun does 
not appear above the horizon, and during another fourth it 
does not disappear. The population is over two million, 
more than one hundred thousand being engaged in fishing, 
manning a fleet of more than ten thousand boats, while one 
hundred thousand are engaged in raising cattle. While 
there are flourishing towns and cities far the larger part 
of the population live in country regions. 

The people are Protestant and a State Lutheran Church 
is maintained. In the earlier years the prejudice of the 
state clergy against Methodism was very strong and seri¬ 
ously hindered the work, but that feeling is greatly modified. 

Advent of Methodism 

The advent of Methodism into Norway is worth recount¬ 
ing. The first Methodist preacher to enter the country was 
the Rev. O. P. Petersen. Upon his first visit, in 1849, he 
remained only one year and then returned to America. In 
1853 he again returned to “raise up a people for God in 
Norway/’ 

One bright morning in 1854, a ship sailed into the harbor 
of Arendal. The sailors wer^ singing Christian hymns, 
which greatly surprised the people on shore. The whole 
crew had been converted in the Bethel Ship in New York 
harbor. These sailors began at once to tell the “Old, Old 
Story.” Revival fires began to flame. The first church was 
organized at Sarpsborg, September 11, 1856, where the first 
church edifice was erected in 1857. The church has spread 
to many parts of the country and occupies Hammerfest, 
the remotest town in the direction of the North Pole. 

Norway Conference 

The Norway Conference for 1910 was held June 29 to 


330 


THE STONE OF HELP 


July 3, in Haugesund, a town of fourteen thousand popula¬ 
tion, located on the west coast. The town has no railroad 
connection and can be reached only by steamer, stagecoach, 
or private conveyance. The people are largely engaged in 
fishing industry and seem to be very prosperous. The com¬ 
ing of the Conference was an important event and made a 
profound impression. The church, a frame structure, ac¬ 
commodates about two hundred people and was crowded at 
every business session. The evening meetings were held 
in Temperance Hall, which accommodates six hundred 
people and was far too small to hold the people who desired 
to attend. I have rarely seen a building so densely packed 
as was this hall at all the evening meetings. The love feast 
was in some of its features unlike anything I have ever 
seen. It commenced at 7 p. m., and continued until mid¬ 
night. Some of the most prominent people in social, busi¬ 
ness, and official life were present, among them the chief 
magistrate of the town. There were delivered during the 
evening eight addresses of an average length of about 
twenty minutes, and there were given many personal ex¬ 
periences of the saving power of the gospel of Christ. 
There were songs by a chorus choir of many voices, a trio, 
and by the whole congregation. There was a spirituality 
and a fervor in it all that reminded me of scenes I have 
witnessed in years gone by in love feasts in America, but too 
seldom seen in these later days. At about ten o’clock a 
generous meal was served to all the people, after which the 
religious services were continued until the midnight hour. 

On Saturday afternoon the Conference and a multitude 
of people visited the monument of King Harold, on the 
edge of the town, who died A. D. 933. It was Harold 
who united the twenty-nine states into which Norway was 
divided in its early history into one kingdom. The monu- 


SCANDINAVIA 


331 


ment consists of a granite shaft about forty feet high, 
standing upon a mound nearly half as high as the shaft. 
Surrounding the mound, at its base, are twenty-nine granite 
slabs, each about twenty feet in height, quarried from the 
rocks of the twenty-nine states respectively, upon which 
are cut the names of the twenty-nine petty kings that ruled 
these states at the time of the consolidation under King 
Harold. 

In 1814, by a series of political events which cannot be 
narrated here, Sweden and Norway, against the wish of 
the latter, became united under one king, each country hav¬ 
ing its own Parliament. In this union Norway was never 
regarded as the equal of Sweden, and all international 
affairs were under the control of the latter, which was cause 
for continuous irritation and controversy. Finally, in 1905, 
Norway withdrew from the union, which for a time caused 
great political agitation in both countries and seriously 
threatened war. However, wise and humane counsels pre¬ 
vailed and a peaceful separation took place. The result is 
that Norway has become independent and is now classed 
among the progressive nations ok Europe. 

The Sabbath was a high day in Haugesund. By permis¬ 
sion of the king’s minister of religion in Christiania, one 
of the state churches, which accommodates about one thou¬ 
sand people, was placed at the disposal of the Conference 
for the morning service, the first instance of the kind in 
the history of Norway. Here Bishop Burt preached to a 
congregation that packed the house, while as many more 
were unable to enter, and in the evening he preached in 
the state church cathedral which holds three thousand, and 
it was crowded to the limit. At 3 p. m. a mass temperance 
meeting was held in a public park, the estimated number 
in attendance being five thousand, and the writer was one 


33 2 


THE STONE OF HELP 


of the speakers. Norway is alive on the temperance ques¬ 
tion and is pushing for the goal of the total prohibition of 
the liquor traffic. At 6 p. m. the ordination service was 
held, after which appointments were announced, and one 
of the most interesting sessions the Norway Conference 
ever held came to an end. 

Sweden 

Sweden has one hundred and sixty-seven thousand four 
hundred and seventy-seyen square miles of territory and 
a population of about five million five hundred thousand. 
While there is much fine scenery, it lacks in some parts the 
majestic natural scenery which so widely characterizes Nor¬ 
way. The country being less mountainous has a far larger 
area of cultivatable land than its neighbor. It has three 
months of perpetual night in winter and three months of 
perpetual day in summer on its northern border. 

The Swedes, like the Norwegians and Danes, are a stal¬ 
wart people. Not a few are six feet tall and well propor¬ 
tioned. Politeness among all Scandinavians is a fine art. 
“Thank you/’ with an upward inflection on the “you” is 
so often heard that it becomes a bit monotonous to Ameri¬ 
can ears. Perhaps, however, some Americans fall as far 
below the standard of real politeness as the Scandinavians 
rise above it. 

Methodism 

Methodism was introduced into Sweden by a native of 
the country, John P. Larsson, who was converted on the 
Bethel Ship in New York harbor. This was in 1853. The 
next year Brother Larsson was joined by another layman, 
S. M. Svensson. Later came the Rev. A. Cederholm, who 
commenced work in Gotland, an island in the Baltic Sea. 


SCANDINAVIA 


333 


In 1865 Dr. Durbin visited the mission and advised that 
classes be organized. The revival spirit prevailed and large 
numbers were converted. Bishop Kingsley, who started 
on his never-completed world-round journey in 1868, 
visited Sweden and constituted the work a regular mission. 
Although as the years have gone by the government has 
become increasingly tolerant, our progress has been handi¬ 
capped in many ways. The state church claims a sort of 
religious proprietorship over every Swedish subject, who 
is by birth identified with that church. To get out of it 
and into a dissenting body one must first unchurch himself 
by making formal application to the proper authorities, 
after which he is classed as a sort of outcast, or as having 
no religion. A young man or a young woman who is a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church cannot be a 
teacher in the public schools. There came to my knowl¬ 
edge the case of a young lady, a teacher in a public school, 
who believed herself to be called to work in one of our 
missions in Africa, but did not identify herself with us for 
the reason that by so doing she would at once lose her posi¬ 
tion as teacher. She decided to remain a member of the 
state church until she was ready to go to Africa, then resign 
her position and take her appointment as a missionary. 
Slowly the old prejudices are yielding and the time will 
come when they will wholly pass away. A pointer in that 
direction was seen on Conference Sunday at Orebro, when 
every state church pulpit was filled by a Methodist preacher. 

Sweden Conference 

The Sweden Conference met July 6-11, in Orebro, a city 
of thirty thousand inhabitants. Nine years previously, when 
I was a visitor, the Conference met in this city. Since that 
time a very marked advance had been made. Then our 


334 


THE STONE OF HELP 


people were worshiping in a very plain edifice, quite inade¬ 
quate to their needs and in an inconvenient location. Now 
they have an excellent building, furnishing adequate facili¬ 
ties for the church services and work, with additional space 
for business purposes and residence apartments, centrally 
located. The space rented furnished an annual income 
equal to the interest on the loan made to erect the building, 
with a balance to apply annually upon the principal. The 
auditorium of the new edifice will accommodate seven 
hundred or eight hundred people, and there are other rooms, 
including a commodious lecture room. 

The ministerial membership of the Conference is about 
one hundred and twenty-five and is the strongest numeri¬ 
cally of our European Conferences. During the session 
ten young men were admitted on trial, six of whom were 
graduates of our theological school at Upsala, and all of 
whom had attended that institution. The school at Upsala 
deserves special notice. It was commenced in Orebro, in 
1874, and later removed to Upsala, where it has for several 
years been under the supervision of the Rev. K. A. Jansson, 
upon whom the Ohio Wesleyan University very deservedly 
and worthily conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity at 
its commencement in 1910. Dr. Jansson is thoroughly 
orthodox and can safely be trusted to train the candidates 
for admission to our ministry. 

The presence and addresses of Bishop Hamilton, Dr. 
Spencer, editor of the Central Christian Advocate, and Dr. 
John F. Fisher, of the East Ohio Conference, and his wife, 
were highly appreciated by the preachers and people and 
gave special interest to the session. Visitors to these Euro¬ 
pean Conferences are not so numerous as they are to Con¬ 
ferences in America, and are not called down if they exceed 
ten minutes. 


CHAPTER XLIII 


THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 
Finland 

Finland has been described as “The Land of a Thousand 
Lakes.” In traveling across the country by rail one is sel¬ 
dom more than a few moments at a time where one or more 
of these lakes are not within the range of vision. Some 
of them cover large areas, but none of them, so far as I 
was able to learn, are navigated except by small boats. 
They are largely used for floating logs from forests to saw¬ 
mills to be manufactured into lumber. Finland has an 
area of about one hundred and fifty thousand square miles. 
The principal resources are its forests and fisheries, the 
former furnishing the material for the erection of their 
homes and the latter for supplying their tables with one 
of their most important articles of food. A meal is seldom 
served which does not consist of two or three kinds of fish, 
prepared in as many different ways. The climate being 
somewhat inhospitable, the variety of cereals, vegetables, 
and fruits is not large. Horses and cattle are raised and 
considerable quantities of butter and cheese are produced. 
Potatoes, barley, and rye are grown quite largely in some 
localities. The country abounds in vast quarries of granite 
and porphyry. 

The seacoast is said to be three thousand miles long and 
is made jagged with almost innumerable fjords, some of 

335 


THE STONE OF HELP 


336 

which extend many miles inland. In the year 1802, at the 
close of a war between Russia and Sweden, Finland became 
a grand duchy, under the suzerainty of the former. The 
relation of the two countries has always been unsatisfactory. 
Finland has always desired greater independence, while 
Russia has been disposed to allow less and less. Under the 
original agreement the former was largely self-governing, 
having its own Parliament, coining its own money, having 
its own banking system, and issuing its own postage stamps. 
The upper branch of the Parliament is appointed by the 
Grand Duke (the Czar), while the lower house is elected 
by the people, women having the same right of franchise 
as men and being eligible to seats in the lower body. Recent 
action of the Russian Douma has greatly restricted the 
privileges of the Finnish Parliament, and is the first im¬ 
portant step toward depriving the people of the large 
measure of self-government they previously enjoyed, and 
places Finland in the same relation to the empire as other 
Russian provinces. 

Racially, the Finns are related to the Hungarians and 
have no kinship with the Russians. They constitute about 
four fifths of the one million five hundred thousand popula¬ 
tion, the remaining fifth being Swedes. They are an in¬ 
telligent people, ninety-nine per cent being able to read. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church 

Our church is said to have been first introduced into 
Finland by two sailor brothers, Gustaf and William Bern- 
lund, who were converted in America and returned to 
Kristinestad, their family home. They were joined by local 
preachers from Sweden, who greatly helped forward the 
good work. In 1883 a few societies were organized and 
in 1885 the work became a separate district of the Sweden 


THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 


337 

Conference. Subsequently the work was separated from 
Sweden and became a separate mission. 

Finland and Saint Petersburg Mission Conference 

This Conference met in Saint Michaels, Finland, July 
14-17. Here our people have secured a valuable lot, finely 
located, with a frontage of about one hundred and fifty feet 
and a depth almost twice &s great. The building, occupy¬ 
ing the entire front line, has been reconstructed on the 
inside so as to provide a chapel that will accommodate two 
hundred people, and also rooms for school and residence 
purposes. The town has a population of four thousand and 
is typically Finnish. The houses are built of wood and 
usually have solid granite foundations. Sleeping accommo¬ 
dations for the members of the Conference were provided 
by the people and meals were served in a suite of rooms in 
the church house. 

The reports of the superintendent of the mission, George 
A. Simons, D.D., and of the district superintendent showed 
encouraging progress along all lines. Five languages were 
in use—Finnish, Swedish, English, German, and Russian. 

Helsingfors 

Helsingfors, the capital and chief city of Finland, has a 
population of one hundred and fifty thousand, about equally 
divided between Finns and Swedes. Here the Swedes have 
an excellent church property, splendidly located and free 
from debt. An adjoining property upon which business 
shops are erected, carries a debt of about $14,000, which 
was being gradually reduced from rentals and would soon 
be free from all incumbrances. In this city the Finns have 
a fine location, with a very neat and attractive place of wor- 


338 


THE STONE OF HELP 


ship, which will accommodate about two hundred people. 
The building also provides a residence for the pastor and 
rooms for social and religious uses. Unfortunately, the 
debt was large and greatly burdened the congregation. 
Here I spent a Sabbath, preaching in the morning to the 
Swedish congregation and in the evening to the Finnish. 
More devout and intelligent congregations could not be 
found anywhere. The Swedish and Finnish preachers are 
wide awake, and if adequately assisted for a few more 
years, the work under their care will be largely self-sup¬ 
porting. By authority of the General Conference, the 
work in Finland and Russia has been separated, the former 
becoming an Annual Conference and the latter a mission. 
The vastness of the Russian empire is simply overwhelming. 
Her total area is 8,660,395 square miles. In Europe her 
area is about 2,000,000 square miles. Her length from east 
to west is about 6,000 miles. Her total population is esti¬ 
mated at 173,000,000. Of these 15,000,000 are Moham¬ 
medans, 18,000,000 Roman Catholics (mostly Poles), 
6,000,000 Jews, 6,000,000 Protestants, 120,000,000 Ortho¬ 
dox Greek. About thirty other nationalities are included. 
The state church is the Orthodox Greek, and until recently 
no one could renounce his creed without incurring the 
penalty of imprisonment. 

For centuries previous to 1861 the common people were 
serfs, belonging to either the crown or to private parties. 
In the year named by imperial decree the serfs were emanci¬ 
pated. Like the Negroes in America, emancipated by Presi¬ 
dent Lincoln in 1863, these serfs were without education. 
Even at this time eighty-five per cent of the people cannot 
read or write. Russia has no public school system, and 
private schools are few and of low grade. Her univer¬ 
sities are hotbeds of nihilism and revolutionary schemes. 


THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 


339 


The government of necessity is a military despotism. The 
frontier is rigidly guarded. One cannot cross the line unless 
he has a passport that has been vised by a Russian consul, 
nor can he leave without having his passport vised by 
Russian police authority. 

While foreigners entering Russia were allowed to adhere 
to their respective religions, they did not dare, until recently, 
to attempt a propaganda among Russians. By a decree 
of the Czar a considerable degree of religious liberty is 
now permitted, which accounts for the presence of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in the empire. 

Saint Petersburg (Petrograd) 

We have established our headquarters in Saint Peters¬ 
burg (now Petrograd), the capital of the empire, which 
has a population of one million five hundred thousand. 
The city, founded by Peter the Great, is on the banks of 
the Neva, on marshy ground, which renders the founda¬ 
tions of many of her great buildings insecure. The founda¬ 
tion of Saint Isaac’s Cathedral, the greatest on the continent 
north of Rome, was reported to be giving way, and there 
was a rumor that the entire edifice was in danger of 
collapse. 

Among the many notable institutions in the capital is the 
National Library, where, through the good offices of Dr. 
Simons, I was allowed to see the celebrated copy of the 
New Testament known as the Codex Sinaiticus, discovered 
by Dr. Tischendorf in 1844, and presented by him to Alex¬ 
ander III in return for special facilities afforded in making 
the discovery and possession of the precious volume possi¬ 
ble. It is kept in a case with a glass cover and is carefully 
guarded. As a special favor the case was opened and I was 
permitted to place my hand upon its ancient pages. It dates 


340 


THE STONE OF HELP 


back to the fourth century, and is the oldest known copy 
of the New Testament. 

Here in the capital we have organized a church, the mem¬ 
bership consisting of Russians and Germans. On a week¬ 
day evening I had the privilege of preaching to a congre¬ 
gation of about one hundred and fifty people and was 
interpreted into German and Russian. What is most 
needed here is a church building, providing for public wor¬ 
ship, social service, and a parsonage, for which $100,000 
is needed. In all Europe there is no place where the need 
of such a property is so great. The hall we occupy will 
accommodate only about two hundred and is wholly inade¬ 
quate to our pressing demands. By the generosity of the 
late Mrs. Fannie E. Gamble, the sum of $50,000 has been 
provided, and it is hoped that the balance will soon be forth¬ 
coming. 

George A. Simons, D.D., is in charge of our work and 
has already proven himself to be a wise and efficient leader. 
There are vast numbers of people, now that a degree of 
religious liberty is allowed, who are easily approachable and 
who will promptly respond to evangelical leadership. There 
is probably no country, nominally Christian, where there 
are such possibilities for an aggressive type of Protestant¬ 
ism as in Russia. 

Bishop William Burt 

With the adjournment of the Finland and Saint Peters¬ 
burg Mission Conference, July 17, 1910, Bishop William 
Burt completed his seventh round of our European Con¬ 
ferences. On this seventh round I was privileged to be 
present at each Conference, and I take special pleasure in 
testifying to the painstaking care and efficiency with which 
his responsible and difficult duties have been performed. 


THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 


34i 


I have often wondered how he had made himself familiar 
with the names of the preachers. Though many of the 
names are unfamiliar to American ears and difficult to 
pronounce by an American tongue, he never once failed 
to recognize a brother by name who addressed him as chair¬ 
man. To'say that he is popular among preachers and people 
is only to pay a richly deserved compliment to a faithful 
bishop and brother beloved. 

Personal 

I sailed from New York March 16 and returned August 
7, having been absent four months and twenty days. Dur¬ 
ing that time I attended twelve Conferences, beginning 
with Algiers in North Africa, and ending with Saint 
Michaels, in Finland, including the World Missionary Con¬ 
ference in Edinburgh. I traveled about twenty thousand 
miles, delivered forty-nine sermons and addresses, and 
looked after a great many business interests. I did not 
fail to meet every engagement and was not ill a moment 
except when having a brief tussle with Neptune on the 
North Sea. Everywhere I received the most cordial wel¬ 
come from preachers and people, which was ample com¬ 
pensation for the fatigue of travel endured and the labor 
performed. 

The European War 

[As I close the foregoing sketch of the Methodist Epis¬ 
copal Church in Europe (September 8, 1914) the great 
war, now involving eight nations, with a possibility, if not 
a strong probability of including three or four more, is 
raging and hundreds of thousands are being slain. What 
the final outcome will be no human foresight can tell. That 
our work in France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and 


342 


THE STONE OF HELP 


Russia will be greatly retarded and damaged is more than 
probable. While the struggle is for the maintenance of 
the prerogatives of royal dynasties and the glory of the 
few who wear crowns, let all hope and pray that the wrath 
of man may be so overruled as to more rapidly than ever 
before bring in the universal reign of the King of kings 
and Lord of lords—when “men shall beat their swords into 
plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall 
not lift the sword against nation, neither shall they learn 
war any more.”] 


CHAPTER XLIV 


THE WORLD MISSIONARY CONFERENCE—1910 

In the interval between the sessions of the Denmark and 
Norway Conferences, June 12-30, I attended the World 
Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, June 14-23, to which 
I had been appointed a delegate by the Board of Foreign 
Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was a 
notable gathering, representing the great leading Protestant 
denominations of the world. The number of delegates was 
about twelve hundred and included men and women of 
various races, languages, colors, and nations, from Chris¬ 
tian and non-Christian lands. But notwithstanding the 
variety of nationalities and tongues, when delivering ad¬ 
dresses, except in a single instance, all spoke English and 
though sometimes with a strong accent, spoke it well. The 
Conference held its daily sessions in the United Free 
Church Assembly Hall, the capacity of which was taxed 
to the utmost. The honorary chairman was Lord Balfour, 
who occupied the chair at the opening and the close of the 
Conference, while Dr. John R. Mott was the acting presi¬ 
dent at the business sessions. 

Eight commissions had been appointed two years pre¬ 
viously who had been studying carefully the subjects 
assigned to them, and each presented a report of the conclu¬ 
sions reached. The order of discussion was not according 
to American usage and was not wholly satisfactory. The 
chairman tried to be fair and impartial in assigning the plat- 
343 


344 


THE STONE OF HELP 


form to the many who desired to be heard, but it was simply 
impossible for him or the business committee that assisted 
him to determine who among the twelve hundred delegates 
were the most deserving by reason of superior ability. 

The Supreme Hour 

The supreme hour of the business sessions was reached 
when the report of Commission Eight on Cooperation and 
Unity was presented, in which it was recommended that a 
Continuation Committee be appointed, consisting of thirty- 
five members to be international in character. This com¬ 
mittee was to give chief attention to cooperation and unity 
but was prohibited from any attempt to bring about organic 
union of churches or societies. 

A Mistake Overruled 

It was a matter of sincere regret on the part of many 
delegates that, to conciliate the High Church people of 
Europe and America, the Conference ruled out the con¬ 
sideration of missions among people where the Roman 
Catholic Church and the Greek Church are dominant; but 
that mistake has been overruled to the great advantage of 
Protestant missions in the countries where these peoples 
dwell. The very fact that those missions were excluded 
from consideration brought them to the fore more promi¬ 
nently than any discussion of their merits in the Conference 
could have done. Before the Conference closed a consulta¬ 
tion was had by delegates representing churches that have 
missions in Mexico, South America, France, Italy, parts of 
Germany, Austria, and Russia, which has already given 
a new impetus to Protestant missions in those lands. 
Protestant missions are not prosecuted to destroy the Ro¬ 
man Catholic and Greek Churches but to reform them. 


WORLD MISSIONARY CONFERENCE 345 

They cannot reform themselves for the reason that they 
have well-nigh lost all spiritual vitality and idolatrous rites 
and ceremonies are universally prevalent. And yet under¬ 
neath these idolatrous rites there is a substance of Christian 
truth that is but dimly seen and in many instances entirely 
hidden which must be uncovered, and brought into the light 
—a thing these ecclesiasticisms cannot do. With the Bible 
withheld from the people, a priesthood often ignorant and 
immoral, and illiteracy widely prevalent, what hope is there 
of reformation from within? The reason why the Roman 
Catholic Church is so much less idolatrous and more intelli¬ 
gent in North America than it is in Mexico, South America, 
and Italy is because here it is in contact with the great 
potential Protestant Church. Had there been as little evan¬ 
gelical Christianity in North America as in the countries 
named, the Roman Catholic Church would be no better here 
than it is there. The same influences that have so greatly 
improved that church here will produce like improvement 
elsewhere. That the Vatican is doing its utmost to resist 
and to reutralize all reformatory influence is seen in all its 
movements. The bull of the late Pope Pius X against 
“Modernism” is in that direction, but that it will accomplish 
the end for which it was put forth is already seen by all 
discerning minds to be not only improbable but impossible. 
There is already assumed an attitude of insubordination on 
the part of distinguished professors in Roman Catholic uni¬ 
versities. 

A recent writer in The Christian Advocate says: “The re¬ 
bellion is open and it seems to be daily increasing in volume. 
The German professors have almost in a body refused em¬ 
phatically to subscribe to the anti-modernist oath. . . . 
These men are united in their determination to resist to the 
death this attack on their liberty of conscience.” Evi- 


346 


THE STONE OF HELP 


dently the spirit of Martin Luther is not dead nor dumb. 
Another great revolt against the Vatican seems imminent, 
if it is not already initiated. Once started it will shake 
Vaticanism to its center and bring to pass, let us hope, the 
abatement of its baneful influence throughout the Roman 
Catholic world. Surely, this is a time when in all Roman 
Catholic and Greek Church countries Protestantism should 
“lengthen its cords and strengthen its stakes.” 


CHAPTER XLV 


CONCLUSION 

After mature deliberation and earnest prayer for divine 
guidance, I sent to the presiding officer of the General 
Conference the following paper: 

Minneapolis, Minn., May 17th, 1912. 
Sisters and Brothers of the General Conference : 

Since reaching Minneapolis, the inquiry has frequently been made 
as to whether I will be a candidate for reelection to the office of cor¬ 
responding secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions. I have not 
until now given a definite answer. 

For many months the question has been to me an important one. 
It is not easy to separate oneself voluntarily from a form of service 
that has commanded one’s time, thought, and heart for almost a 
quarter of a century. My election as corresponding secretary of the 
Missionary Society in 1888 was the most unexpected event of my life. 

Accepting the position to which the General Conference elected me, 
I have had for my motto from that day until the present hour, “This 
one thing I do.” In the discharge of my duties, under the direction 
of the Board of Managers, I have served longer as corresponding 
secretary than any other man who has held that office. I have visited 
and inspected our foreign fields more widely than any other official of 
the church, and have come into close touch and sympathy with mission¬ 
aries and workers everywhere—as noble and heroic a band as can be 
found in the world. But notwithstanding my love for the work and 
the workers, for reasons that are conclusive (but need not be enumer¬ 
ated here), I have decided not to stand for reelection. Although in the 
remnant of days that may be allotted to me I will not be responsible 
for the work, I will not lose my interest in and love for the men and 
women who stand on the red-hot battle line that divides between the 
followers of false gods and those of the King of kings and Lord of 
lords. Whatever of brawn, brain, and heart I may possess will be 
devoted to the work I will lay down when the General Conference 

adjourns. , r . . 

Very sincerely yours, A T 

Adna B. Leonard. 


347 


348 


THE STONE OF HELP 


General Conference Action 

Immediately upon the reading of the foregoing paper 
Dr. James M. Buckley moved that Adna B. Leonard be 
elected emeritus corresponding secretary of the Board of 
Foreign Missions and it was done by a rising and unani¬ 
mous vote, accompanied with the Chautauqua salute. Being 
called to the platform, I tried to express something of the 
appreciation I felt for the spontaneous, hearty action taken 
and the honor conferred. 

Later a special committee, of which Dr. J. M. Buckley 
was chairman, reported the following, which was unani¬ 
mously adopted by a rising vote: 

Whereas, Dr. Adna B. Leonard has notified the General Conference 
that he does not desire a reelection as corresponding secretary of the 
Board of Foreign Missions, be it 

Resolved, I. That for twenty-four years Dr. Leonard has set an 
example of devotion to the cause which was committed in large part to 
his heart, his head, and his hands, worthy of remembrance and imita¬ 
tion. 

Resolved, 2. That his name should be enrolled in the records of the 
Board of Foreign Missions, the history of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and universal Methodism. 

Resolved, 3. That his name and designation as General Correspond¬ 
ing Secretary Emeritus, of the Board of Foreign Missions be printed in 
the Annual Reports of the Society so long as he lives. 

Resolved, 4. That his salary be continued till the next meeting of the 
Cincinnati Conference, which he has honored so long. 

Resolved, 5. That in view of his long career in the office and his 
advancing years, the Board of Foreign Missions be empowered to 
make him such a grant annually as they shall judge to be advisable. 

A Final Word 

I know that I am on the sunset slope of life and that the 
sun of my earthly day nears the horizon, but the prospect 
brightens as the day draws to its close, and I am proving 
the truthfulness of the Holy Scripture, which says, “But 


CONCLUSION 


349 


it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light.” 
This volume is my “Ebenezer”—my Stone of Help, for 
Hitherto hath the Lord helped me. 

“Here I’ll raise mine Ebenezer: 

Hither by thy help I’m come, 

And I hope by thy good pleasure 
Safely to arrive at home. 

Jesus sought me when a stranger, 

Wand’ring from the fold of God, 

He to rescue me from danger 
Interposed his precious blood l” 


































































» 




























































































































































Mission¬ 

aries 

OF THE 

Board 

Missionaries of the 

W. F. M. S. 

Other Foreign Workers 

Ordained Native Preachers 

Unordained Native Preachers 
and Exhorters 

Other Native Male Workers 

Native Female Workers 

Members 

Men 

Women 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

1888. 

148 

121 

69 

69 

353 

411 

594 

400 

46,432 

1889. 

159 

135 

94 

78 

377 

515 

1,083 

523 

50,954 

1890. 

182 

170 

122 

72 

447 

661 

1,237 

626 

52,966 

1891. 

185 

166 

128 

64 

475 

1,013 

1,181 

475 

58,753 

1892. 

210 

186 

100 

47 

437 

872 

1,087 

571 

59,138 

1893. 

221 

205 

155 

46 

489 

993 

1,454 

690 

69,887 

1894. 

220 

221 

148 

49 

576 

1,019 

1,555 

853 

76,415 

1895. 

225 

224 

151 

93 

661 

1,159 

1,651 

888 

82,480 

1896. 

230 

233 

170 

68 

676 

1,131 

1,985 

943 

90,185 

1897. 

190 

178 

174 

24 

646 

966 

2,000 

872 

96,840 

1898. 

235 

211 

187 

33 

726 

1,017 

2,486 

786 

101,223 

1899. 

255 

218 

200 

33 

765 

1,031 

2,502 

820 

104,439 

1900. 

265 

225 

195 

33 

831 

1,038 

2,829 

1,221 

107,003 

1901. 

267 

208 

212 

30 

793 

1,023 

2,800 

1,161 

109,131 

1902. 

257 

212 

204 

42 

851 

1,703 

2,289 

964 

112,911 

1903. 

277 

215 

234 

159 

839 

2,621 

2,488 

662 

118,422 

1904. 

276 

227 

231 

154 

905 

2,614 

1,708 

1,300 

122,968 

1905. 

298 

263 

249 

163 

1,015 

2,854 

1,717 

1,466 

131,566 

1906. 

301 

271 

255 

95 

958 

3,278 

2,858 

729 

137,352 

1907. 

343 

330 

308 

97 

1,045 

3,752 

1,699 

1,462 

148,278 

1908. 

343 

320 

303 

92 

1,045 

2,992 

2,609 

1,339 

151,664 

1909. 

374 

354 

326 

76 

1,071 

3,645 

2,122 

914 

158,216 

1910. 

388 

362 

346 

123 

1,110 

3,682 

2,068 

1,327 

164,237 

1911. 

385 

372 

384 

110 

1,052 

4,034 

2,370 

1,870 

174,876 

1912. 

400 

391 

404 

207 

969 

4,415 

1,558 

2,734 

182,710 

1913. 

418 

409 

436 

133 

1,225 

4,535 

1,853 

2,680 

187,144 


SU MMARY OF FOREIGN MISSIONS, 1888-1913 


<~) 00 

a g 

(D « 

S-J 


E-Hh 


u.g 


a— 

m.S ! 


3 


Baptisms 


o 

^ o 


■2-S 

-a m 

H.g 

a 


fl CD 

la 

Zeq 


I 


10 


,863 

,904 

,765 

,572 

,652 

100 

418 

723 

,545 

789 

254 

665 

954 

723 

377 

314 

595 

812 

723 


11 

63,295 

68,858 

74,731 

91,325 

90,790 

118,987 

135,833 

147,203 

159,730 

169,629 

177,477 

182,104 

182,957 

189,854 

201,288 

215,736 

226,563 

248,378 

265,075 

297,350 


12 


177,818 352,694 


80,371 

76,322 

220,040 


13 

49,319 

67,649 

63,763 

73,566 

76,572 

79,345 

136,759 

156,283 

146,767 

165,978 

182.432 
180,611 
173,409 
164,808 
200,467 

91,595 
94,0S3 
105,661 
114,256 

152.432 


164,369 17,568 
150,195 22,899 
155,99l|l9,866 


14 

,909 

,717 

,796 

,733 

342 

,557 

710 

,061 

,431 

,496 

,161 

,079 

,024 

,271 

,461 

,814 

606 

,505 

165 


19,165 


113,715 

101,777 

82,390 


20,006 

25,056 

26,678 


15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23 

24 

25 

26 

27 

28 

29 

30 

31 

32 

33 

3,260 




18 

38 

258 

36 

205 

3,564 

747 


23,697 

27,519 

1,944 

112,928 

516 

s 

1,618,150 

278 

3,684 




19 

41 

307 

51 

297 

4,491 

794 


25,251 

30,049 

2,181 

105,423 

559 

1,82.5'971 

319 

5,265 




18 

52 

326 

45 

302 

4,794 

1,027 


28,724 

33,844 

2,187 

107,085 

581 

1,872;553 

347 

8,282 




18 

59 

434 

48 

338 

3,983 

1,032 


32,150 

36,567 

2,255 

111,365 

623 

2,027,284 

301 

8,231 




18 

56 

335 

40 

219 

2,385 

272 


10,370 

13,090 

2,464 

120,954 

632 

2,033,742 

322 

9,775 




20 

56 

378 

63 

313 

3,868 

1,389 


37,032 

41,278 

2,971 

141,518 

737 

2,015,295 

352 

9,338 




20 

61 

390 

65 

392 

5,833 

1,361 


34,590 

40,813 

3,213 

159,824 

788 

2,301,484 

358 

9,580 




16 

52 

248 

58 

340 

5,551 

1,437 


35,120 

40,919 

3,430 

154.267 

811 

2,581,703 

385 

9,461 




13 

38 

286 

65 

359 

5,869 

1,522 


37,601 

43,756 

3,560 

168,747 

873 

2,629,130 

395 

9,135 




9 

29 

199 

49 

356 

5,887 

1,323 


34,652 

40,738 

4,011 

185,863 

954 

2,757,385 

423 

11,519 




16 

46 

314 

58 

286 

4,622 

1,139 


31,882 

36,818 

4,286 

1S6.597 

1,030 

2,757,286 

471 

9,858 




13 

43 

243 

56 

343 

4,613 

1,138 


35,613 

40,469 

4,262 

191,917 

1,045 

3,134,978 

490 

8,151 




13 

48 

311 

63 

482 

6,861 

1,344 


55,794 

62,966 

4,302 

201,908 

1,174 

3,503,154 

576 

10,270 




12 

31 

220 

64 

426 

7,086 

1,124 


46,737 

54,043 

4,451 

213,754 

1,126 

3,610,626 

597 

11,350 




10 

46 

227 

58 

445 

5,523 

1,113 


33,916 

39,666 

4,196 

223,045 

1,210 

3,440,470 

618 

8,368 

"9 

ioo 

1,223 

15 

60 

330 

75 

369 

6,841 

1,633 


43,557 

50,728 

4,648 

234,907 

1,228 

4,113,393 

657 

11,358 

21 

44 

302 

100 

591 

10,101 

1,804 


47,176 

58,632 

4,928 

247,633 

1,312 

4,392;428 

644 

12,930 

11 

106 

1,044 

26 

56 

411 

122 

907 

14,670 

1,828 


46,473 

62,598 

5,304 

260,552 

1,387 

4,500,748 

678 

13,717 

12 

97 

1,230 

26 

84 

496 

137 

1,103 

15,903 

1,841 


52,985 

70,589 

5,552 

279,913 

1,455 

4,801;320 

741 

14,785 

11 

133 

1,632 

30 

115 

1,262 

145 

998 

17,996 

2,094 


50,946 

71,898 

5,963 

298,942 

1,732 

5,169,040 

70S 

14,007 

20 

250 

3,582 

45 

137 

1,078 

163 

1,126 

19,587 

2,095 


50,180 

74,427 

5,986 

302.93S 

1,733 

5,391,219 

SI ft 

17,718 

12 

209 

2,141 

46 

136 

1,436 

143 

1,037 

15,081 

2,487 


58,706 

78,453 

6,551 

316,509 

1,918 

5,649,228 

97‘2 

16,699 

10 

115 

1,428 

41 

125 

1,043 

147 

1,124 

19,912 

2,374 


60,515 

82,898 

6,460 

336,455 

2,062 

6,246.176 

1 034 

18,895 

10 

122 

1,408 

38 

150 

1.1S9 

79 

744 

9,820 

2,537 

3,379 

73,049 

85,466 

6,673 

333,320 

2,154 

6,299,491 

1 207 

19,788 

14 

173 

2,303 

37 

147 

1,655 

73 

661 

8,435 

2,444 

3,49! 

70,858 

83,251 

6,820 

327,745 

2,205 

7,036,172 

1 206 

21,508 

12 

130 

2,104 

31 

109 

930 

76 

796 

10,867 

2,628 

3,748 

72,544 

86,435 

6,906 

323,441 

2,284 

7,050,466 

1,259 


& 

P-i 


_Q <D 

a a 
o d 

£;o 




ao 


§ a 
xtx 


3 a 

D 

3 ^ 


a 3 


*A 

w O 
« o 


3 


Pm 2 
— O 


-z, o o 


O <U 

C.S 


Contributions op the Church on the 
Foreign Field 


2 3 
O.J3 

Bo 


£ a. 

3 o 
— Pm 

o 

t--a 

r ° a 
cs 


’^•2 

H.SJ 

O Cc- 

O 

a> 
si *S 

£ © 


34 

S 

491,222 
551,551 
514,760 
700,457 
541,791 
740,369 
680,711 
861,722 
863,957 
733,228 
870,700 
916,6S3 
,085,839 
978,121 
,044,279 
,051,075 
,117,337 
,198,609 
,220,411 


35 
$ 

453,880 
517,970 
576,845 
763,804 
631,001 
670,765 
881,632 
940,955 
,082,041 
,205,835 
,348,117 
,359,277 
,625,286 
,668,284 
,482,091j 
,833,526 
,736,138 
,777,534|1 
,163,004 1 


36 

S 


444,283 

226,068 

328,066 


37 

38 

39 

40 

41 

s 

S 

S 

S 

S 

444,637 


10,925 

13,951 

92,032 

438,633 


10,877 

15,770 

113,785 

463,869 


11,364 

13,246 

126,131 

491,126 


12,258 

29,961 

119,247 

516,555 


12,171 

23,050 

93,212 

612,220 


12,486 

12,267 

130,696 

666,619 


12,288 

21,658 

149,046 

778,758 


13,117 

19,248 

149,639 

878,664 


13,570 

14,780 

211,507 

1,076,314 


14,491 

30,258 

220,872 

1,073,999 


14,203 

26.57S 

223,322 

1,057,362 


15,358 

28,250 

264,979 

1,457,443 


15,735 

34,306 

298,157 

1,412,724 


15,470 

30,195 

249,857 

1,522,483 


16,289 

26,280 

317,168 

1,544,761 


16,503 

19,405 

400,272 

1,667,656 

78,484 

16,033 

27,021 

457,942 

1,659,805 

74,087 

17,107 

17,219 

428,227 

1,882,453 

49,180 

18,014 

11,422 

521,676 

1,849,359 

63,958 

17,132 

28,717 

489,502 

2,246,378 

49,468 

15,038 

19.195 

464 251 

2,387,664 

58,768 

17,950 

19,654 455.404 

2,589,892 

50,038 

19,315 

19,558 500,088 

2,787,195 

72,711 

19,469 

24,452 502.569 

2,960,932 

48,257 

17,326 

25,668 388,941 

3,107,339 

72,598 

19,133 

28,226 372,641 


42 

$ 

55,536 

47,549 

53,540 

53,872 

39,551 

53,978 

93,187 

57,170 

88,333 

83,574 

64,736 

75,619 

89,638 

94,704 

104,640 

146,196 

108,209 

80,672 

109,883 


43 44 
* S 

71,718 244,162 
95,1061283,087 
100,668 304,949 
123,980 339,318 
89,5231257,507 
103,717 313,144 
96,638 372,817 
109,3791348,553 
107,783 435,973 
149,999 499,194 


161,250 
150,412 
137,019 
121,806 
99,992 
74,031 
52,322 
104,385 
160,9S4 


490,089 

534,618 

574,855 

512,032 

564,369 

656,407 

762,654 

669,124 

831,511 


141,059 781,040 
51,793 735.917 
118,680 730,614 
86,9021740,347 
82,919 817,662 
204,772;822,758 
265,174 810,530 









































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Oct. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 11 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 














